Ashford: Feds have lost their will to fix immigration woes
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By KEVIN O'HANLON / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Monday, December 5, 2011 4:00 pm | (13) Comments

Sen. Brad Ashford (Courtesy photo)
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The head of the Nebraska Legislature's Judiciary Committee expressed pessimism Monday that the federal government will fix the nation's illegal immigration woes.

"We still are in a situation where our federal government has utterly failed to address what is an incredibly important issue --not only for Nebraska, but for every state,'' Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha said during an interim hearing to address illegal immigration. "Congress has lost its will and its way."

By some estimates, 45,000 illegal immigrants live in Nebraska and 11 million live in the United States.

Ashford made the comment before hearing an update from Nebraska State Patrol Col. David Sankey on the federal Secure Communities program. Started in 2008, it calls for fingerprints taken by local police to be sent to the FBI and also checked against immigration databases by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The program is being used in some 1,750 jurisdictions in 44 states -- including 12 in Nebraska. That's a little more than half of the nearly 3,200 jurisdictions expected to be a part of Secure Communities by 2013.

Sankey said the 28,500 sets of fingerprints submitted from Nebraska so far in 2011 have resulted in 196 deportations.

"Most of the time, ICE's response is to take no further action unless the person is wanted by authorities for a serious criminal matter," Sankey said. "Of course, state troopers pursue any violations of state law that exist … regardless of ICE's action."

Secure Communities is facing criticism by those who say it erodes trust between police and local immigrant communities. Many people also fear it has resulted in racial profiling.

Ashford said dealing with illegal immigration is a federal matter, a stance that appears to make it unlikely the Judiciary Committee will advance any immigration bills for debate by the Legislature in the upcoming session that starts Jan. 4.

One of those bills (LB4, by Sen. Charlie Janssen of Fremont, would require police officers who stop or arrest a person to check whether he or she is in the country legally if the officers have "reasonable suspicion" to think otherwise. Anyone who cannot prove he or she is here legally would be held for federal authorities.

It is modeled after a 2010 Arizona law, which thrust that state to the epicenter of the national immigration debate.

A federal judge has put parts of the law on hold, and Arizona Republican Gov. Jan Brewer is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on the law.

The man who wrote the law, Republican Sen. Russell Pearce, recently was voted out of office in a special recall election.

Many people fear such laws would lead to racial profiling. Those on the other side say such laws are needed because the federal government has dropped the ball on the issue.

Reach Kevin O'Hanlon at (402) 473-2682 orkohanlon@journalstar.com.

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