Program targeting dangerous illegal immigrants falls short

Program targeting dangerous illegal immigrants falls short

By Alan Gomez
USA TODAY
Updated 37m ago

WASHINGTON — An immigration enforcement program that trains local police officers to enforce federal immigration laws has not been used to target illegal immigrants who commit the most serious crimes, according to a report released Monday.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said the federal government will focus on catching and deporting dangerous illegal immigrants. Yet half of the roughly 27,000 illegal immigrants deported in fiscal year 2010 through the 287(g) program, where federal immigration agents train and supervise local police officers, were initially arrested on misdemeanor or traffic offenses, according to the report published by the Migration Policy Institute, a non-partisan research group.

Some viewed those figures as proof that the program is being abused by local authorities who are simply trying to rid their communities of growing numbers of legal and illegal immigrants.

"Nobody disputes the need to get rid of dangerous people, of drug dealers," said David Leopold, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "But when the effect is to split up families and to chase people out of the country who might otherwise help the country, you've got to scratch your head and wonder 'What is the point of this program?' "

Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates lower levels of immigration, said it's unfair to criticize the program without understanding how its being used in each area.

She said the program is used to target smuggling routes along Colorado highways, and many people involved initially face minor charges. The same goes for gang activity in Southern California, where 287(g) officers can identify and deport illegal immigrants charged with minor crimes, but are tied with violent gangs.

"The idea for 287(g) was to give local law enforcement agencies a tool that they could adapt in their own communities," Vaughan said.

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Gillian Brigham, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said in a statement that they closely monitor each of the 72 law enforcement agencies across the country that participate in the program for abuses.

"ICE does not tolerate violations of civil rights and civil liberties and will not partner with jurisdictions which engage in racial profiling or otherwise violate federal law," Brigham said in a statement.

The report also found that law enforcement agencies in the Southeast had the highest percentage of deportations that started out as traffic arrests. In nine agencies, more than 50% of deportations started as traffic offenses. Eight of those nine agencies were in Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, which supports a process for some illegal immigrants to become citizens, said those numbers closely mirror the political dynamics in those states, where many anti-immigration efforts are underway in state legislatures.

Just as the Northeast struggled with European immigrants in the 1800s and the Southwest has grappled with illegal immigration from Latin America or decades, Noorani said, the Southeast is just now battling with immigration as more immigrants — both legal and illegal — move into those states.

"These are four states that are really grappling with a change in their demographics," Noorani said. "The country is changing, and you can either respond to it in a way that's forward-thinking, or in a way that foments fear."

Sixty-two percent of deportations in Gaston County, N.C., started as arrests on traffic offenses, but Sheriff Alan Cloninger said that's simply a representation of the kind of crimes that illegal immigrants commit in his county.

Cloninger said they have officers trained through the 287(g) program working in their jail, and that everybody processed into the jail is questioned about their immigration status. "If I was arrested ... I would be asked these questions," Cloninger said.

He said the numbers are simply a result of North Carolina laws that require officers to arrest anyone caught driving drunk or driving without a driver's license.

"My thing is to try to be fair to everybody," Cloninger said. "That's important to me as sheriff: that we try to be fair to everybody. But when somebody violates the law, they violate the law."
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They do not have the power to decide which lawbreakers they will or will not deport.

Congress and the American public has spoken through our representatives and elections.

Illegal aliens are to be deported when detected period. End of story. No negotiation. Not your call.

Deport all illegal aliens when arrested for other crimes.

Dont wait till AFTER and American or legal immigrant is assaulted, robbed, raped, or dead because of this invasion. Deport illegal aliens before they escalate to more violent crimes.

W

In my opinion, 287(g) was never effective. It was time consuming and costly to train and equip the local police. Only a few scatterred agencies used it. It would have taked decades to have implmented a mere 20% of the country.

Secure Communities is damn near as good, cheaper and will be in every county by 2013. Yea !

The only problem I see with the 287(g) plan is wanting the police to work directly under the supervision of ICE. Generally speaking police are already trained in how to handle it such as spotting fake IDs and doing background checks. The whole agreement process should be considered mandatory though expecting states themselves to opt out and only states. The police simply have to treat illegal aliens just like everyday criminals except with refusing bail for flight risk reasons.

The real failure is that ICE, Nappy, and Obama don't want to pick up the illegals and thus leaving states with serious issues. Then they create extra beaucracy around it to bloat it down.


Looking at it its not much different then the secure community agenda which is being weighed down and destroyed by the same individuals who don't want to deport illegals and rather fight for them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ReformUSA2012

The only problem I see with the 287(g) plan is wanting the police to work directly under the supervision of ICE. Generally speaking police are already trained in how to handle it such as spotting fake IDs and doing background checks. The whole agreement process should be considered mandatory though expecting states themselves to opt out and only states. The police simply have to treat illegal aliens just like everyday criminals except with refusing bail for flight risk reasons.

The real failure is that ICE, Nappy, and Obama don't want to pick up the illegals and thus leaving states with serious issues. Then they create extra bureaucracy around it to bloat it down.


Looking at it its not much different then the secure community agenda which is being weighed down and destroyed by the same individuals who don't want to deport illegals and rather fight for them.

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The 287g process worked, but it was never going to be a national process. For example, we had a single county, in Ohio, qualified. The Ohio State Patrol wasn't interested and most county sheriffs didn't have the resources (money) to pay for the certification and training. Ohio would never have but one or two local police agencies trained. The full capability of the trained officers was great, but most of them only worked in the jail. Our streets weren't made any safer.

Now, with Secure Communities (SC), every county will be enrolled, by 2013. Ohio, a low priority, already has 14 counties enrolled. In fact, any local police agency, with electronic finger prints, will use the system. It doesn't require additional staff, training, or resources. It's an automatic process.

Every county, in every state will be enrolled by 2013. Every city will use this system.

When fully implemented, almost everyone arrested, will have their immigration status evaluated by ICE. They will not all be deported, but think how this is different from today. Without SC, may serious illegal aliens were allowed to roam the country. If they were arrested, a full warrant check isn't done. The FBI database might be checked, but not the ICE database. Consequently, if a serious offender does get stopped for a minor violation, he is released or allowed to post bail.

To date, ICE has not permitted a single county or city to "opt out".

This is a giant step forward for interior, immigration enforcement.

Reason why there were problems in Ohio is all the extra crap. What sort of exttra costs really *should* there be with training? Basically just identifying false IDs and documents which many police are already taught. Sheriffs and deputies can partake in the same short training groups fairly darn cheap also. Besides that is simply learning how to identify illegals which most Americans can do fairly easily already which honestly long as everyone stopped has ID / documents checked the fake ID system would kick in.

Besides that... fake ID = jail, jail means call ICE and let them rot until ICE shows up. Don't need an interpretor, don't needa provide a lawyer. Just lock em up till ICE arrives... maybe feed em... maybe.