Thread: NC Sheriff taking skills to D.C.

HOMELAND SECURITY
Sheriff taking skills to D.C.
Pendergraph says he'll take fight against illegal immigration U.S.-wide

ERIC FRAZIER AND EMILY S. ACHENBAUM
efrazier@charlotteobserver.com



PendergraphMecklenburg Sheriff Jim Pendergraph, who rose to prominence battling illegal immigration locally, is about to take that fight nationwide in a new job with the federal government.

Pendergraph says his new job with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Washington will let him extend the work he's done locally to identify illegal immigrants among Mecklenburg's jail population.

He will retire as sheriff effective Dec. 1, he announced Monday. On Dec. 3, he will become the Homeland Security agency's first executive director of state and local coordination.

One of his top priorities will be encouraging other sheriff's offices around the country to follow his example in Mecklenburg, where he has targeted nearly 3,000 inmates for deportation since May 2006.

"Leaving the job and community I love ... was a difficult decision," said Pendergraph, 57. "But I believe the stability of our country is at stake."

Rafael Prieto, editor and publisher of the Charlotte-based Mi Gente newspaper, voiced concern about the sheriff's new job. Prieto has written columns critical of Pendergraph and the federal government's program 287(g), which trained Mecklenburg deputies to identify deportable immigrants coming through the jail.

"I think the sheriff's new position will damage the country. He's going to push the 287(g) program into all the cities he can. I think the program, at this moment, is a failure.

"They're deporting people who are not real criminals. Most of these people were stopped for traffic violations."

He said about 30 of those identified turned out to be aggravated felons. The weekly newspaper, which publishes on Mondays, was trying to print an extra edition this week because of Pendergraph's announcement.

The sheriff responded by quoting his department's statistics. More than 600 of those identified by the jail program were facing DWI charges, he said. More than 200 faced assault charges, and about 180 had been previously deported.

"We strictly follow the federal guidelines," Pendergraph said. "The complainers don't have a leg to stand on."

Pendergraph, first elected in 1994, is serving his fourth term after winning re-election in November. He plans to recommend that his longtime chief deputy, Chipp Bailey, be appointed to finish his four-year term.

Democratic Party officials and Mecklenburg commissioners must back Pendergraph's recommendation. Bailey said if he gets the job, he will continue the illegal-immigrant program that has won his boss national attention.

Pendergraph was the first sheriff east of California to sign up for the program, and has testified before Congress about the illegal immigration problem. Pendergraph said sheriffs in Gaston, Cabarrus, Union, Iredell and York, S.C., counties are starting or have started similar programs.

"We've been kind of the national model here," he said.

Bailey has been chief deputy throughout Pendergraph's tenure. He handles day-to-day operations, helping oversee more than 1,400 employees and a budget of more than $100 million.

"I've been the behind-the-scenes person all this time, so I know the business and feel pretty comfortable with it," Bailey said. "I just have to warm up to the political side."

Added Pendergraph: "I've known him for 35 years. He can continue leading the agency without missing a beat."

Pendergraph worked as a police officer in Charlotte for 23 years, first with the old county department and later with the consolidated city-county agency. He rose to deputy chief before unseating former sheriff C.W. Kidd in 1994.

Pendergraph said he learned about the federal job this year while speaking to Julie Myers, assistant secretary of Homeland Security for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

She asked whether he knew of anyone who'd be interested in the new job she was creating. When he read the job posting later, Pendergraph said, "it was like it was written for me."

He will make "a little more" than the $151,000 he makes as sheriff, but he declined to say how much. A Homeland Security spokesman, reached by the Observer, did not immediately have the salary available.
http://www.charlotte.com/112/story/301864.html

GREAT news!!!!!!! I wish him AND his successor God speed in their jobs.

He will make "a little more" than the $151,000 he makes as sheriff, but he declined to say how much.

Let's hope he earns it by actually accomplishing something. If he can make a difference I'd be more than happy to give him bush boy's salary that's not being earned...