Ball's illegal-immigration bill called unnecessary

By Cara Matthews • Albany Bureau • May 23, 2008


ALBANY - An assemblyman from Putnam County is trying to build support for a bill that would allow local police to get more involved in deporting immigrants, but some state officials and groups said the legislation is not needed.

Assemblyman Greg Ball, R-Patterson, said illegal immigrants who run afoul of the law might slip through the cracks in the correctional system. Their immigration status is not always verified, and they could be released back into the community rather than sent home after serving prison time, he said. Meanwhile, they cost New York taxpayers millions of dollars.
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Ball's bill would provide training to state police, county sheriffs' deputies and state correction officers that essentially would give them more authority to identify and deport illegal immigrants. Ball said a few senators have expressed interest in the bill, and he is working on a more specific version that would focus on sex offenders and violent criminal illegal immigrants.

Putnam County Sheriff Donald Smith, who helped organize a forum in Albany yesterday on policing undocumented immigrants, said his department notifies federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement when anyone with questionable immigration status enters the county jail.

"The bottom line is we just feel like this program is working," Smith said before a four-hour seminar on the issue, sponsored by the state Sheriffs' Association and organized by Smith and Rockland County Sheriff James Kralik. Both men have areas of their county with large illegal-immigrant populations - the villages of Suffern in Rockland and Brewster in Putnam.

If the legislation Ball is sponsoring were enacted, "we'd get the same results ... because ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is very responsive to our needs based on the size of our county," Smith said.

Smith said he is not for or against the program Ball is pushing in the bill. However, his office studied the issue last year and determined there would be "no significant advantages" in joining the ICE program.

Factors that limit the success of current efforts include a lack of immigration judges and bed space as well as federal borders that are not secure, Smith said. Some criminal illegal immigrants get deported, only to return and break additional laws, he said.

Ball said misperceptions exist about what he's trying to do.

"It's sad to watch some people turn a law-enforcement issue into an 'us-versus-them' argument," he said. "This is solely about focusing on the most violent criminal illegal aliens and making sure they're deported so they can't strike again in the state of New York."

The legislation's provisions include requiring that ICE perform monthly searches of the state's registered sex-offender list to find criminal immigrants and prohibiting local laws that bar police from calling ICE when they take an illegal immigrant into custody.

ICE, part of the Department of Homeland Security, enters into agreements that let state and local law-enforcement agencies perform immigration law functions. Officers who receive training can pursue investigations relating to violent crimes, human and drug smuggling, gang/organized crime activity, sexually related offenses and money laundering.

There are 47 active agreements between ICE and law enforcement across the country and more than 90 pending requests as of April 28, according to the agency's Web site.

Suffern police are interested in setting up a program, Kralik said. These are referred to as 287(g) programs.

The county correctional facility would be unable to house people brought in by the village because they would be federal detainees, the Rockland sheriff said. Local police could use a federal detention center, he said.

The state Department of Correctional Services does not think Ball's bill is necessary, spokesman Erik Kriss said. ICE officers are already at the agency's disposal and often assist the state, he said.

James Pendergraph, executive director of ICE's Office of State and Local Coordination, said illegal immigration is a "growing concern." He traveled from Washington to speak at yesterday's conference.

"We didn't get into this situation overnight, and we're not going to resolve it overnight," he said. "It's going to take us years to resolve these issues. Right now, we're primarily focusing on the criminal aliens that are in this country illegally committing crimes."

The New York Immigration Coalition has come out against Ball's legislation, calling it "a costly and counterproductive proposal" that would erode trust and cooperation between police and communities they serve. The organization has a letter on its Web site that it is asking other groups to sign onto.
http://tinyurl.com/44v836

New York Immigration Coalition
http://www.thenyic.org/index.asp

Their Board of Directors includes:

2007 - 2008 NYIC Board of Directors

Elsie St.-Louis Accilien, Executive Director
Haitian-Americans United for Progress (HAUP), Queens

Ana Maria Archila, Executive Director
Latin American Integration Center (LAIC), Queens and Staten Island

Inna Arolovitch, Chairperson
American Association of Jews from the Former USSR, Brooklyn

Raquel Batista, Executive Director
Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights, Manhattan

Mariana Boneo, Executive Director
The Hispanic Resource Center of Larchmont and Mamaroneck, Westchester

José Calderón, Vice President
Hispanic Federation, Manhattan

Guillermo Chacón, National Senior Organizer
Salvadoran American National Network, Manhattan

May Y. Chen, International Vice President, UNITE!
Vice President, UNITE HERE, Manhattan

Margaret Chin, Deputy Executive Director
Asian Americans for Equality, Manhattan

Muzaffar Chishti, Director
Migration Policy Institute at NYU School of Law, Manhattan

Vladimir Epshteyn, President
Russian-American Voters Educational League (RAVEL)
Director, Metropolitan Russian American Parents Association, Brooklyn

Hector Figueroa, Secretary-Treasurer
SEIU Local 32BJ, Manhattan

Andrew Friedman, Co-Director
Make the Road by Walking, Brooklyn

Gail Golden, Co-Chairwoman
Rockland Immigration Coalition, Rockland County

Graciela Heymann, Executive Director
Westchester Hispanic Coalition, White Plains

Sonia Ivany, President
NYC Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), Manhattan

Tricia Kakalec, Executive Director
Worker’s Law Project, Ulster County

Caroline Katz, Director of External Relations
United Jewish Appeal-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, Manhattan

Mae Lee, Director
Chinese Progressive Association, Manhattan

Carmen Maquilon, Director of Immigrant Service
Catholic Charities Diocese of Rockville Center (CCRC), Amityville

Yu Soung Mun, Executive Director
Young Korean American Service & Education Center, Inc. (YKASEC), Queens

Mohammed Razvi, Executive Director
Council of Peoples Organization (COPO), Brooklyn

Joel Magallán Reyes, Executive Director,
Asociación Tepeyac de New York, Manhattan

Mario Russell, Director of Migration Services
Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of New York, Manhattan

Annetta Seecharran, Executive Director
South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!), Queens

Susan Stamler, Director-Policy & Advocacy
United Neighborhood Houses, Manhattan

Bakary Tandia, Case Manager
African Services Committee, Manhattan

Luis Valenzuela, Executive Director
Long Island Immigrant Alliance, Long Island

Barbara Weiner, Staff Attorney
Empire Justice Center, Albany

Patrick Young, Director of Legal Services
Central American Refugee Center (CARECEN), Hempstead