Thread: Union resistance slows immigrant crime initiative

sfgate.com
Julia Preston, New York Times
Sunday, January 8, 2012

Washington --

The federal agency in charge of deportations is conducting a far-reaching training course to push immigration enforcement officers and prosecutors nationwide to focus their efforts on removing immigrants convicted of crimes.

The training course is the clearest sign yet that administration officials want to transform the way immigration officers work, asking them to make nuanced decisions to speed deportations of high-risk offenders while halting those of illegal immigrants with clean records and strong ties to the country. The policy is President Obama's most ambitious immigration initiative before the November elections, senior administration officials said.

But in a new sign of the deep dissension over immigration, the union representing 7,000 deportation officers of the agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, has not allowed its members to participate in the training. Without the formal consent of the union, the administration's strategy could be significantly slowed for months in labor negotiations.

Union cites politics

Chris Crane, president of the union, the National ICE Council, has fiercely criticized the strategy, saying it amounts to orders from ICE officials for agents not to enforce the law. In congressional testimony, Crane accused the administration of tailoring its enforcement practices to win support from immigrant communities for Obama's re-election.

"Law enforcement and public safety have taken a back seat to attempts to satisfy immigrant advocacy groups," Crane told a House Judiciary subcommittee in October.

Crane has channeled his criticisms primarily through Republican leaders in Congress, working with Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Calling the administration's plan "back-door amnesty," Smith said recently that evidence Crane presented to the committee showed that directives from ICE officials for agents to use discretion in enforcement decisions had "undermined the agency's credibility and mission."

Department of Homeland Security officials say the training seminar, although only half a day, is central to bringing all ICE officers on board for an effort they say will significantly raise the numbers of convicted criminals among deportees and is expected to lead in coming months to unprecedented suspensions of deportations of tens of thousands of illegal immigrants.

Missing training goals

Virtually all ICE commanding officers and prosecutors have gone through the training course and are working on the new strategy, Homeland Security Department officials said. But because of the silence from the ICE Council, a local of the American Federation of Government Employees, the officials will miss their Friday goal for completing the nationwide training blitz, which began in November.

The National ICE Council faces a deadline late this month to say whether it will demand negotiations over the training, the officials said. Crane did not respond to repeated e-mail requests over several months for comment.

It is not clear how deeply the union's resistance reaches into ICE ranks. ICE officials say many field agents have been drawn to the professional appeal of the high-profile anticrime operations against foreign street gangs, drug dealers and sex offenders that the agency is conducting ever more frequently.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...#ixzz1itHMoVGH

Related:

Dave Gibson
Immigration Reform Examiner
January 8, 2012

The National ICE Council, the union which represents more than 7,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers is not allowing its members to take part in training ordered by the Obama administration which would facilitate a large reduction in the deportation of illegal aliens.

Read more here: http://www.alipac.us/threads/247623-...9s-lawlessness