Thread: Need for committee to oversee immig enforcement questioned

Need for committee to oversee immigration enforcement questioned

Sutton says some commissioners are acting on their own

August 23, 2008 - 2:06PM
Robert Boyer / Times-News

Commissioner Tim Sutton said it's news to him that the Alamance County, NC Board of Commissioners is considering creating a citizen committee to oversee the federal-county effort to contain illegal immigration.

Commissioner Chairman Larry Sharpe said Thursday that commissioners have been discussing the possibility, and that Commissioner Vice-Chairman Dan Ingle is heading that process.

Sheriff Terry Johnson said Thursday that before the 287(g) program came to Alamance County, he established an advisory committee made up of Detention Director Coley Rich and others in his office who are participating in it.

Sharpe said commissioners are considering instead a committee that includes county residents who don't work in law enforcement.

Not so, at least as far as discussing it with him goes, Sutton said. "Larry Sharpe nor Dan Ingle, neither of the two have ever mentioned a committee that they are forming," he said. "They are doing it on their own. They're not authorized by the consensus of the board, and it's just more of they're doing what they want to do."

On Friday, Ingle left a message to call him, Sutton said. "There has been no discussion on our board in a formal fashion to give anybody the consensus or role in heading up this committee."

Ingle said he spoke with the sheriff about forming an oversight committee on Monday after the board meeting. The sheriff said he has been considering establishing a committee. Ingle said he had intended to contact the other board members about his suggestion. "It's my fault for not getting up with commissioners. There's not intent on Dan Ingle's part to leave anybody out."

Ingle said he did leave a message with Sutton and plans to talk to the other commissioners, but added that since Johnson is considering an advisory board the commissioners "probably don't even need to be involved in that."

Sutton said he thinks Ingle and Sharpe are "placating the people out of Chapel Hill" who oppose 287 (g).

Sharpe and Commissioner Bill Lashley could not be contacted Friday afternoon for comment.

The issue of citizen oversight arose on Monday at the commissioners' meeting, when several county residents said Johnson had not put into place a required steering committee and complaint procedure for 287(g), the program administered by the Department of Homeland Security that trains and authorizes local law enforcement as federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Johnson said Thursday that he is following 287(g) requirements as laid out in a memorandum of understanding between his office and the federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Sutton, an advocate of illegal immigration enforcement, was the driving force in bringing 287(g) to the county. He remains convinced in the program.

Sutton said he is all for doing what the memorandum calls for, but added that he doesn't "have a desire to go past that."

Sutton thinks further oversight is "unnecessary," and would create "another bureaucratic wall" but "won't alter implementation."

Critics of 287(g) "are grasping at straws," he said. "They're looking for any angle they can to discredit the program. They are obsessed with this program locally and they are trying to defeat it."

What the critics want, Sutton added, is for illegal Hispanics to be able to get driver's licenses. "They're putting on a false face, a false front."

When it comes to defending 287(g) and Johnson, Sutton has shown an eagerness to spar with fellow commissioners, as well as activists who share opposing views.

On Thursday, Sutton was miffed when comments from an interview that same day weren't included in a story about 287(g) published in Friday's edition of the Times-News.

In a subsequent phone interview, Sutton said he was "too important" not to have comments from the initial Thursday interview included in the story.

In a second phone call, Sutton left a voice mail adding: "And you could have gotten my comments in there in less than two sentences. I think my comments were a little too good, as usual."
http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/sutton ... oners.html

I like this Tim Sutton. And it is not the job of any commissioners or any other officials to "placate" activists proposing the violation of local, state and federal laws. These guys have to represent the interests of their LEGAL constituents who vote; not the illegals--well, who knows if they don't vote as well and perhaps vote often with their fake documents.

NO OVERSIGHT; WE HAVE ENOUGH OR TO MUCH OVERSIGHT, NOW.

DEPORT ALL ILLEGAL CRIMINAL ALIENS - HOW MUCH MORE SIMPLE CAN IT BE.

DON'T DISCRIMINATE. JUST DEPORT ALL