Posted on Fri, Dec. 07, 2007
Sheriff seeks help on illegal immigration
Program would let deputies check inmates' status
By Mike Cherney
The Sun News
The Horry County Sheriff's Office will apply for a federal program next year that will make it easier for deputies at the county jail to deport illegal immigrants, said Sheriff Phillip Thompson.

The program, called 287(g) after the section of the federal law that created it, would let deputies at J. Reuben Long Detention Center check the immigration status of inmates. If a database search determined that an inmate is an illegal immigrant, federal agents would take the inmate from jail and begin deportation proceedings.

An immigration violation is a federal offense, so state and local law enforcement agencies generally cannot enforce immigration law.

Deputies currently are unable to check the immigration status of inmates and must contact federal authorities, who run the check. Federal agents can then decide whether they will come and pick up an offender.

But under the 287(g) program, federal authorities are required to collect immigration violators. They also would pay Horry County a small fee to house the inmates until federal agents can pick them up.

Joey Johnson, deputy director of the jail, said currently deputies notify federal agents if any Hispanic person is detained with gang tattoos. In most cases, federal agents interview the suspect to determine whether the person is an illegal immigrant.

Of the 700 people in J. Reuben on Wednesday, five had been found to be illegal immigrants by federal authorities, Johnson said. Federal authorities collect immigration violators after they have served their local sentence.

Rep. Thad Viers, R-Myrtle Beach - an organizer for the Horry County chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a border security advocacy group - said 150 to 200 people are booked in the jail a month who do not have proper identification.

"It's a wonderful thing," he said of the 287(g) program. "Local governments have to step up."

A range of offenders, including people driving with suspended driver's licenses and murder suspects, end up in jail, Thompson said. If approved, he said deputies would only run immigration checks on serious offenses.

"You're talking about dealing with violent offenders, and that element is what we don't want here," Thompson said. "That would be an advantage not just to us, but to the citizens."

Brent Wilkes, the executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a Hispanic advocacy group in Washington, D.C., said it would be unfair to target illegal immigrants who have committed minor offenses. "It should be more related to the people that are really guilty for something more serious than a simple violation," he said. "People that are felons, they are not folks that we want to try to protect."

Richard Rocha, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency that oversees immigration violations, said it would be up to local law enforcement agencies to determine which inmates to check.

Thompson said he wants to apply soon so deputies will already have their certification by the time a 128-bed addition to the minimum security section of the jail opens in the summer. A 536-bed maximum security tower is also scheduled to open in 2010.

If an agency is accepted into the program, Rocha said that usually a dozen officers are given training that would certify them to run immigration checks. The time varies to complete the training, which is tailored to the needs of the department, he said. Since the 287(g) program was created in 1996, 34 agencies have already been certified and 80 agencies have requested the training. The only S.C. agency to be certified is York County's sheriff department.

Some of those agencies receive training that allows patrol officers to ask people they would stop normally, such as during a traffic stop, for immigration papers. But Thompson said he only wants to check people who come through the jail.

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