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Number of deported illegal immigrants could skyrocket in new program
By Jared Allen, jallen@nashvillecitypaper.com
September 20, 2006

If Davidson County secures entry into the federal Delegation of Authority immigration program, the Sheriff’s Office could identify and deport as many as 3,000 illegal immigrants each year, according to a compilation of figures from Nashville and Charlotte – the last U.S. city to enter into the program.

The estimated 3,000 stands in stark contrast to the 151 foreign-born arrestees who were ordered detained by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last year, and the typical 100 or so who were similarly detained in past years when the federal government was the only agency enforcing immigration policies.

“I’ve said before, every week I have to release dozens of foreign-born individuals before I know if they’re legal or not,” Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall said. “And that has to change.”

The frustration Hall feels knowing that each week dozens of foreign-born arrestees are put back on the street before he can determine if they are legal or illegal immigrants is what led the sheriff to ask the Department of Homeland Security for the authorization to quickly get that information himself.

On Aug. 15, Hall applied to have Davidson County become only the fourth county nationwide to receive the training, equipment and authority to essentially act as its own immigration enforcement agency regarding the booking of people into the Metro Jail.

In the 30-day period – Aug. 15 to Sept. 15 – since Hall asked to take part in the Delegation of Authority program, the first-term sheriff has had to release the vast majority – 86 percent – of arrestees who he identified as foreign born.

In Charlotte – the last city to win acceptance into the Delegation of Authority program and demographically similar to Nashville – during the same 30-day period, Sheriff Jim Pendergraph began deportation procedures on 42 percent of the total number of foreign-born inmates who were identified almost instantly as being illegal aliens.

Between mid-August and mid-September, Hall identified 503 inmates as having birthplaces outside of the United States. As he has every month prior, Hall fed all of those names to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which in the last 30 days placed immigration holds on 18 – or 3.6 percent – of those arrestees.

Although an additional 69 remain in jail on their charges, 416 — 83 percent — were released before their immigration status could be determined, Hall’s office said.

Hall believes that if his office is allowed to participate in the Delegation of Authority program, the number of foreign-born individuals booked into the Metro Jail and who are found to be in the country illegally will rise dramatically.

And with Nashville averaging about 7,500 foreign-born arrestees each year – compared to 4,000 in Charlotte – the number of individuals found to be here illegally could easily be in the thousands annually.

One inmate who was not flagged by ICE last year was Gustavo Reyes Garcia, an illegal immigrant who in 2005 was booked on three separate occasions for driving infractions, only to be released within days each time after he posted bond.

Garcia was placed under a federal immigration hold in June of this year, after he was accused of driving a vehicle head first into a Mt. Juliet couple, killing them both.


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