Published 03/09/09
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) - Two Maryland law enforcement leaders testified before Congress last week about a federal program that allows local authorities to enforce immigration laws - but their opinions on its effectiveness vastly differed.

Speaking before the House Committee on Homeland Security, Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger said the program could damage trust between authorities and immigrant communities.

"Public safety increases when people have trust and confidence in local police forces," Manger said. "The bottom line is local law enforcement needs to work closely with our immigration authorities, but we cannot do their job for them."

However, Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins called his department's participation in the program "an overwhelming success."

The program is known as 287(g) for the section of immigration law that authorizes it. It has garnered more than $114 million in funds since its launch four years ago and has trained 951 officers in 67 state and local agencies on how to figure out a person's immigration status.

Jenkins said the four weeks of training given to 52 of his sheriff's office employees and corrections officers last year had allowed them to identify 337 illegal immigrants - 309 of whom were put into deportation proceedings.

Jenkins told the committee that nine of those arrested were members of the notoriously violent MS-13 and 18th Street gangs. He said others were arrested for such crimes as attempted murder, rape, armed robbery, assault, child abuse and burglary.

Jenkins said participating in the program was essential to combating "the enormous increase in crime throughout the United States ... which can be tied directly to the unchecked flow of illegal immigrants through our southern border with Mexico."

Advocates for CASA of Maryland, an immigrant rights group, said that more than half of the illegal immigrants identified by Frederick officials were stopped for driving without a license and that only 20 were charged with felonies.

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