Opinion : NC Sheriffs Still Reporting Illegals
Posted by admin on 2009/11/27 11:43:15

(115 reads)
By Jeff Mixon

Despite recent efforts by the federal government to restrain local law enforcement from using the 287 (g) program to identify illegal aliens for deportation, North Carolina sheriffs are still reporting the presence of illegal aliens who are booked in their jail. The program was created under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and provides state and local law enforcements with training on how to identify, process, and when appropriate, detain immigration offenders they encounter during their regular, daily law-enforcement activity.

In August, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent a revised agreement with 12 changes to its participating agencies. The new guidelines have been viewed, by several press accounts, as tying the sheriffs’ hands from reporting illegal aliens for deportation, which was the foundation of the 287 (g) program.

Regardless, North Carolina sheriffs continue to identify and report illegal aliens who come through their jails no matter what they are charged. Currently, seven sheriff’s departments in North Carolina participate in the 287 (g) program: Alamance, Cabarrus, Cumberland, Gaston, Henderson, Mecklenburg and Wake counties, as well as the Durham Police Department.

The media has been peddling one story after another seemingly designed to show how the 287 (g) program has “torn families apartâ€