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05-29-2009, 12:41 AM #1
Pick for immigration agency chief stresses being humane
Pick for immigration agency chief stresses being humane
BY SUMATHI REDDY
10:13 PM EDT, May 28, 2009
President Barack Obama's pick to head U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says he will strive to create a more humane agency, reviewing medical care provided at detention facilities and exploring alternatives to detention, such as greater use of ankle bracelets.
The nominee, assistant secretary of homeland security for ICE, John T. Morton, stressed in an interview Thursday that the department, which has generated controversy for workplace raids and the conditions of detention facilities, will focus its efforts on removing undocumented immigrants who commit crimes and pursuing charges against employers that hire undocumented immigrants.
"Our job is to try to enforce the law in a way that is firm but fair, thoughtful, humane, but we have to enforce the law," Morton said. " . . . I just want to bring some sort of innovation and thought to the way we carry out our jobs at ICE with the right emphasis on criminals and employers and other serious actors."
A former Justice Department prosecutor, Morton is in his second week on the job, reviewing ICE programs, including the controversial practice of transferring detainees to out-of-state facilities. "I know that for attorneys and families it can create a real hardship when people are moved away," Morton said. "Sometimes that's a necessary movement."
Complete coverage of President Barack Obama The Secure Communities program that the agency will use to target undocumented immigrants who commit crimes is an expansion of one that began in the Bush administration in October. It's expected to be across the nation by 2012, Morton said. It is not yet in New York.
The program checks the immigration status of everyone booked into a local jail by matching inmates' fingerprints against immigration databases, allowing ICE to identify deportable immigrants.
Advocates have expressed concern that the program could affect immigrants arrested for minor crimes. "It would be of concern if it's going to include minor crimes like driving without a license," said Dawn Pipek Guidone, a Mineola immigration attorney. "People can't get driver's licenses because they don't have the documents."
With limited resources, Morton said the program will focus on "the more serious offenders, adding, "I wouldn't say we're going to ignore anyone who is here unlawfully and subject to removal."
Morton said he would take a "hard look" at medical treatment and conditions at detention facilities. He will look at greater use of ankle bracelets and alternate means of detention.
But Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports stricter immigration enforcement, said alternate methods won't work.
"The reason the previous administration ramped up detention is because nothing else worked," he said. "You really don't have any incentive to come in for an immigration hearing if the result is going to be you're sent home."
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05-29-2009, 12:45 AM #2
I don't care if the handcuff illegals gently, as long as they deport them.
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05-29-2009, 01:46 AM #3"I wouldn't say we're going to ignore anyone who is here unlawfully and subject to removal.""The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" ** Edmund Burke**
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