Thread: NY: Police Seek Help in Criminal Deportation

Police Seek Help in Criminal Deportation
By JENNIFER V. HUGHES
Published: February 24, 2008

LAST summer the Suffern police arrested a 17-year-old illegal immigrant after he was found peeping into a girls’ bathroom at the village recreation center.

The teenager spent about a month in the Rockland County Jail after pleading guilty to trespassing and weapons possession charges (he had a switchblade knife) and was released for time served, Chief Clarke Osborn said. The next day, he was arrested again and charged with burglarizing a car wash.

In the future, an illegal immigrant charged with a crime in Suffern might not still be around, if the village completes plans to join what is known as a 287 (g) partnership with the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency known as ICE. “If we were dealing with 287 (g) after the first incident,â€

[quote]Gail Golden, co-chairwoman of the Rockland Immigration Coalition, said that if the local police become partners with ICE agents, immigrants would be afraid to go to the police.

“Battered women will be afraid to call the police, people who know that there are drugs sold in their neighborhood won’t call,â€