New sheriffs in Wake and Durham will no longer cooperate with immigration agency

New sheriffs in Wake and Durham will no longer cooperate with immigration agency

BY THOMASI MCDONALD

DECEMBER 07, 2018 05:11 PM,
UPDATED DECEMBER 07, 2018 09:28 PM

Wake County Sheriff announces an end to collaboration with ICE

Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker announces the end of his department's participation in 287g, a program allowing them to collaborate with ICE to detain people living in the United States illegally, during a press conference on Friday, Dec. 7.
By Casey Toth


RALEIGH Newly elected Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker said Friday that his office will no longer participate in a controversial immigration program.

For years Wake has been part of 287(g), which allows local law enforcement agencies to partner with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to identify and eventually deport people living in the country illegally who have been charged with a crime.

Baker announced the end of Wake’s participation at a news conference Friday afternoon.
“We serve a lot of communities,” Baker said as he stood next to Uriel Rodriguez, a middle school student he met while campaigning. “We want to make it so that the Wake County Sheriff’s Office treats everybody the same and improves the quality of life for each and every person. It’s about humanity. It’s about just caring for people. That’s a large part of what this office will be doing, moving forward.”

The Durham County Sheriff’s Office also said in a press release Friday that newly elected Sheriff Clarence F. Birkhead would end the practice of honoring ICE detainers.

Durham County has not participated in 287(g), but it used detainers to hold suspects up to an additional 48 hours so ICE could take them into custody.

Under the new plan, “absent of a court order or arrest warrant signed by a judicial official any person who has had their criminal charges disposed of or who has made bond will not be held beyond the normal timetable for release,” according to the statement.

In Wake, the sheriff’s office said it would honor “lawfully issued” detainers for the 90 jail inmates currently being held under 287(g).

Baker promised to review the cases to ensure the detainers were lawful.

Immigration was a hot topic in sheriffs’ races across North Carolina during this fall’s election.

In Wake County, Baker, a Democrat, defeated longtime Republican incumbent Donnie Harrison.

Wake began participating in 287(g) under Harrison, who argued that it helped his office identify inmates who give an alias and were in the U.S. illegally.

The ACLU spent $100,000 for a local radio advertisement that accused Harrison of “tearing families apart and stoking racial tensions” by participating in 287(g).

The announcements from Baker and Birkhead came two days after Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden said his office will no longer be part of the program. ICE quickly criticized McFadden’s decision, calling it “an open invitation to aliens who commit criminal offenses,” the Charlotte Observer reported.
The ACLU also paid for a similar advertisement that aired in May during the sheriff’s race in Mecklenburg County, home to Charlotte. McFadden defeated the incumbent.

Immigration advocates and others who opposed 287(g) in Wake praised Baker on Friday.
“The sheriff has kept his campaign promise,” said, Rick Brown, attorney for Baker.
At the end of the news conference, Baker put his arm around the shoulders of Uriel Rodriguez while the two posed for a picture.

“It will help the community a lot,” Uriel said.

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article222687085.html

Durham County’s Friendly Relationship With ICE Could Hinge on Its Sheriff’s Reelection Bid


BY SARAH WILLETS
MAR. 21, 2018
7:00 A.M.

https://indyweek.com/downloads/6357/...6f7ccc0e4b2b20
Durham County Sheriff Mike Andrews (left) and challenger Clarence Birkhead

This year's race for Durham County sheriff could be pivotal for how the agency interacts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Clarence Birkhead, a former Duke University and town of Hillsborough police chief, is vowing to do things differently than Sheriff Mike Andrews if he succeeds in the Democratic primary on May 8his second attempt to unseat Andrews.

Over the past year, Andrews has frequently been criticized for unclear statements about his agency's relationship with ICE and for honoring so-called ICE holds, constitutionally problematic requests from ICE to hold people in local jails after they otherwise would have been released so that ICE can assume custody.

A thirty-eight-year veteran of Durham law enforcement, Andrews was sworn in as sheriff in 2012 after retiring Sheriff Worth Hill selected him to finish out his term. In response to community concerns, Andrews selected an officer to serve as the liaison to the Hispanic community and has staffed a Spanish-speaking officer at the county jail. Under Andrews, the agency also accepts Faith IDs, a non-government-issued form of identification. Andrews told ABC11 he contacted state legislators to oppose a 2017 bill that would have prohibited law enforcement agencies from accepting Faith IDs.

What's more, the DCSO "does not, has not and will not participate" in the federal 287(g) program, which deputizes local officers to carry out some immigration enforcement duties, Andrews wrote in response to a questionnaire from the People's Alliance PAC, which endorsed him over Birkhead in 2014. (Andrews wasn't available for an interview before press time.)

In public statements, the agency has variously said that it does and does not participate in another ICE program called Secure Communities, through which booking information makes its way from local jails to the Department of Homeland Security. In North Carolina, the information-sharing aspect of this program is basically unavoidablefingerprints and other booking information are sent from jails to the State Bureau of Investigation, which is linked to the FBI's database. Federal law mandates that the FBI share that information with Homeland Security.

Local jails, however, do have some latitude in whether to honor requests from ICE to continue to hold people who land on the agency's radar as a result. In January, then-DCSO spokeswoman Tamara Gibbs told the INDY that all detainer requests are honored at the Durham County Detention Facility. Asked for a copy of the policy by which jail staffers decide whether to honor a detainer request, Gibbs said that "at last check, the staff had no specific policy that addresses this question."

Last year, 114 people were held at the Durham jail under ICE holds, including 57 who were released directly into ICE custody.

Multiple courts have found that detainers amount to a new arrest under the Fourth Amendment, and that the administrative warrants that typically come with themwhich merely require an immigration officer, rather than a judge, to attest that someone is deportableare not sufficient proof that probable cause exists to continue to hold a person who would have otherwise been released. Just last month, a federal judge in California ruled that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department had violated thousands of inmates' constitutional rights by holding them on ICE detainers. (Andrews didn't respond to an email from the INDY asking why all ICE detainers are honored and if he would keep that practice if re-elected.)

Birkhead says that, if elected, he would have a more open dialogue with the agency's critics and would allow members of the public to tour the jail "in a controlled manner." Building trust with Durham's Hispanic and immigrant communities would be part of a larger effort to increase transparency and public engagement that would also include the establishment of "an office that is a liaison to all people," particularly communities of color.

"I think the main difference I will bring is having conversations with those who want to protest," he says.

Birkhead served as Duke's police chief from 1998–2005, when he became chief of police in Hillsborough. He left that post in 2010 to run for Orange County sheriff but was unsuccessful. (A few months later, it was made public that the Hillsborough department was being investigated for improper recordkeeping at the direction of an accreditation manager during Birkhead's tenure.)

He was associate vice president of safety and security at Queens University until 2012 and has worked as a security consultant since. In the 2014 primary, Birkhead won about 39 percent of the vote, to Andrews's 56 percent.

If he becomes sheriff, Birkhead says he will only honor detainer requests that come with a judicial warrant or an outstanding warrant for arrest.

"If the federal government wants to criticize us for not honoring detainers, I'm OK with that, because I think the community at large will be appreciative of that approach and appreciate us being good stewards of local resources," Birkhead says. "There's nothing in the federal law that says I must participate."

The change would bring Durham County's policies more in line with Orange County, which, since Sheriff Charles Blackwood took office in 2014, has not honored detainer requests "unless continued custody is supported by probable cause to believe that a criminal violation of federal immigration law has occurred"for example, by a judicial or outstanding warrant.

"Enforcement of federal laws should be accomplished by federal actors and not by local law enforcement," Blackwood says. "I am committed to being responsive to the needs of all members of our community regardless of a person's immigration status."

Blackwood is also up for reelection this year and faces a Democratic challenger in Tony White, a former investigator with the Orange County Sheriff's Office whose platform emphasizes reforms within the agency.

Blackwood began his law enforcement career with the OCSO in 1980 and retired as major of operations in 2012 to run for sheriff. In a statement, he identified emergency services infrastructure, opioid use, racial disparities in the criminal justice system, and school safety as challenges he'd like to address.

White worked for the Orange County schools' transportation department for nine years before joining the OCSO in 1997, serving in the resource officer and patrol divisions before joining criminal investigations. He retired in 2016 for personal reasons, on which he declined to elaborate.

White told the INDY that he would cut spending, engage more with local youth, work to prevent drug overdoses, and "have more of a diverse department" if elected. "I would ensure that everyoneregardless of who they are, where they live, what color, what race or religionthat they get treated the same," he says.

On immigration enforcement, White says he isn't fully familiar with the OCSO's current polices, but he is "totally against the ICE program." He says he would have to look into his obligation to honor detainers with administrative warrants, but he would only honor requests accompanied by valid warrants with which the Sheriff's Office is obligated to comply.

The primary is May 8. There are no challengers from outside the Democratic Party in either the Orange County or Durham County sheriff's race.

https://indyweek.com/news/durham/dur...eelection-bid/

North Carolina is becoming more and more liberal, as anchor babies and folks from the liberal northeast have set up shop in the state and vote for the democrats. End birthright citizenship, lest every state turn like California.

Anti-immigrant and racist rhetoric is costing NC sheriffs their seats across the state

http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/c17d2d8...?s=24&d=mm&r=g By Lissette Guerrero

18 hours ago

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In Commentary, immigration9

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http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/wp-co...ES-300x189.jpg

In case you missed it, voters in several North Carolina counties sent a strong signal this year that they don’t want local law enforcement to do the dirty work of enforcing the Trump Administration’s immigration agenda. Sheriffs elected in several counties have pledged to stop honoring immigration detainers and declared an end the controversial 287(g) program, which essentially makes local officers extensions of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

One anti-immigrant policy emerged as an important factor for voters in several sheriff races. The 287(g) program allows a local law enforcement agency to deputize some of their officers to act as immigration agents and to hand undocumented constituents over to ICE, even in circumstances when there has not been a conviction. This policy undermines trust between law enforcement and the community, which can result in less crime being reported due to a fear of deportation.

Voters in Mecklenburg County delivered a rebuke to the 287(g) program as Garry McFadden won over incumbent sheriff Irwin Carmichael, who defended the use of the anti-immigrant policy. During his time as sheriff, Carmichael re-signed the county’s 287(g) agreement and the total number of people processed for deportation through the program reached over 15,000. McFadden announced the end of the program this week.

In Wake County, Gerald Baker unseated longtime sheriff Donnie Harrison, who was running for his fifth term in office. Under Harrison’s leadership, Wake County became one of six counties in the state to participate in the 287(g) program. Harrison had been strongly criticized for choosing to participate in the 287(g) program that separates families and increases racial tensions in the community. In stark contrast, Sheriff-elect Baker pledged to end the partnership with ICE as soon as he takes office, a stance that clearly resonated with voters in Wake County.

Durham County saw a similar outcome in the primary race for sheriff as Clarence Birkhead ousted Mike Andrews. Birkhead, the first black sheriff of Durham County, pledged his office will not honor immigration detainers, which are requests to hold a detainee for up to 48 hours beyond the time they would have otherwise been released. ICE detainers requests are not obligatory and sheriffs have the option to honor or ignore an immigration detainer. Earlier this year, Andrews chose to publicly reject a request by community members to stop honoring ICE detainers. During Andrew’s time as a sheriff, Durham County honored thousands of ICE detainers.

Collectively, these results signal North Carolinians’ growing opposition to aggressive immigration enforcement policies emanating from Washington, and a refusal to see their local law enforcement used as pawns for the Trump Administration’s agenda.

http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2018/...oss-the-state/

Moderators: For some reason when I attempted to place the story title in the "title" for the article it put the link in. Don't know what's going on. Perhaps you can fix it. Thank you.

IMO this is a result of 3 things....

The explosion of new immigrants to this country who have no loyalty at all to the United States of America.

The brainwashing in our education system.

The brainwashing in our media.

I fear it will only get worse, unless we get a handle on all 3 of these problems.

12/6/18

North Carolina sheriff to end ICE 287g immigration program

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Originally Posted by MW

Moderators: For some reason when I attempted to place the story title in the "title" for the article it put the link in. Don't know what's going on. Perhaps you can fix it. Thank you.

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Done. ;)

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Originally Posted by Jean

Done. ;)

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Thank you, Jean.