Thread: Sheriff: Forsyth must wait

Sheriff: Forsyth must wait
Entry into immigrant-screening program won't be soon, he says

http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2008 ... wait/?news
By Wesley Young | Journal Reporter
Published: April 25, 2008
Forsyth County won't be taking part anytime soon in a federal program to screen detainees at the county jail for immigration status, Sheriff Bill Schatzman told county commissioners yesterday.
Although the county has applied to take part in the program, Schatzman said he has learned that staffing and money shortages at the federal level are slowing any expansion of the program, which now operates in only four of North Carolina's 100 counties.
Schatzman said that Forsyth County won't get into the program this year, and it is iffy for 2009 as well. The county might not be able to enter the program until 2010, he said. Forsyth is among 12 to 15 North Carolina counties that have applied to join the initial four. Under the screening program, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would train local jail staffs in screening people who are arrested to see if they are in the country illegally. When flagged, those people in custody would be turned over to the immigration service for deportation.
The immigration service would pay the county for housing illegal immigrants in the jail until they could be picked up.
Schatzman said last fall that he was concerned that the jail couldn't accommodate the screening program without additional staff members. A consultant told county commissioners yesterday that the program could go forward with the hiring of one program coordinator at a cost to the county of about $76,000.
Stephen Allen, the consultant, said that in addition to the program coordinator, the county would have to provide a small amount of office space for the immigration service within the jail.
Last fall, Schatzman told commissioners that the jail had about 270 employees and needed 20 more to be fully staffed. He said yesterday that the staffing shortage still exists even though the illegal-immigrant program would require only one staff member.
Taking part in the screening program has been a high priority among county commissioners. Schatzman told the commissioners yesterday that North Carolina will be the "flagship" among ICE partnerships with law-enforcement agencies when the program is fully up and running.
Schatzman said that his department is already taking part in a program that is designed to make sure that illegal immigrants being held for criminal offenses are not released into the community upon completion of their sentences.
About 28 percent of the illegal immigrants who run afoul of the law here are picked up for driving without a license, Schatzman told the commissioners.
He said he believes that the federal screening program "isn't going anywhere unless the federal government dumps a whole lot of money and hires a whole lot of people.
"The saying is easy, and the doing is real difficult," he said. "It takes a lot of staff and money. There are transportation issues and judicial issues and confinement issues, the costs involved."
Wesley Young can be reached at 727-7369 or at wyoung@wsjournal.com.

Hello Senators Burr and Dole. Are you out there? A little help here please...

And how many people are going to die before these programs are up and running to save lives?

W