Thread: Sheriff to track illegal residents

I called Sheriff Hale and told him he has more support than he knows and NOT to back down! GO SHERIFF HALE!!!!!!!!!!!!!




http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/i ... xml&coll=2



Sheriff to track illegal residents

Wednesday, December 28, 2005
CAROL ROBINSON
News staff writer

Jefferson County sheriff's deputies will begin tracking illegal immigrants throughout the county, keeping tabs on who they are, where they live and their movement throughout the community.

Not everyone is happy about the new database and those say the manpower could be better used pursuing violent criminals and targeting high-crime areas.

The new program launched by Sheriff Mike Hale allows all sworn deputies to enter legally obtained information - including photographs - of illegal immigrants into a database to be shared with other law officers throughout the region. Deputies, he said, won't be out hunting illegal immigrants, but will document those they come into contact with during the normal course of business.

The database, Hale said Tuesday, is a new crime-fighting tool. Any illegal immigrant who comes in contact with deputies - whether as an offender, a county jail inmate or even a victim - is fair game for the database, the sheriff said.

"The issue of undocumented illegal immigrants in the Birmingham area is exploding," he said. "Establishing a seamless link between the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department and other key police departments in the metro area is critically important to reducing crime and taking dangerous offenders off the streets."

Helen Rivas, an activist for immigrants, was livid when she heard about Hale's program.

"That is appalling," she said. "Crossing the border is only a misdemeanor. Let's look at rapes, robberies, murders, mayhem. These are not criminals. I'd rather they go after terrorists. Are they assuming tomato pickers are going to be throwing bombs?"

Taken aback:

Attorney David Gespass said he, too, was taken aback by the initiative.

"I fundamentally don't like the idea of going after people without documents," Gespass said. "What I have found in talking with law enforcement is that they're happy to have them here as long as they don't break the law. The attitude is usually that as long as they are working and staying out of trouble, they're not going after them.

"This seems like grandstanding to me," he said. "Aren't there better things to maintain databases of? It would seem to me that if you're going to maintain an electronic database, what you really want to keep track of is high-crime areas where you want to concentrate your officers, rather than targeting a group that's not doing anything terribly wrong."

Rivas said she has watched for years as Hispanic residents in the Birmingham area let fear prevent them from reporting crime. Hale's plan, she said, will only worsen that problem.

"I hope that's not a byproduct of this, and if it is, it's unfortunate," said sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Randy Christian. "However, we believe the greater good is having information on the people who are in our country illegally."

Hale's initiative, which is being implemented in two phases, is funded by $200,000 in grant money through the Pegasus Research Foundation, with software provided by Allstar Knowledge Systems. Pegasus is a nonprofit that works with the nation's sheriff, police, fire, first responder, public health and other entities to facilitate multi-state sharing of essential law enforcement and Homeland Security information.

The first phase of the project is already complete - placing computers equipped with the software in all of the department's substations. When deputies finish their daily duties, they can immediately enter any contact with illegal immigrants into the computer. "It's getting information out of the officers' notebooks and into a database," Hale said.

Second phase:

The second phase of the program, which will begin sometime in January, is to outfit other police agencies with the software - at no cost to them - so the agencies can share the database.

All of the information in the database will be shared with the federal Bureau of Immigration & Customs Enforcement, called ICE, the agency charged with enforcing immigration laws. Seven immigration agents cover the northern Alabama district, which stretches from Calera to the Tennessee state line. In 2005, 240 people were processed for deportation from north Alabama.

"Legal immigration is what our country is built on, but I'll tell you, illegal immigration is a real problem," Hale said. "We'll be able to give them a snapshot of what's going on in our area."

Hale said the main interest is to identify and follow criminal illegal aliens.

The sheriff said the issue of illegal immigrants can wreak havoc in a number of areas - from overwhelming school systems and hospitals to driving a car without insurance, having a wreck and not paying for the damage. "Part of being an American is being responsible for your actions," he said.

Alabama state troopers are being trained to arrest illegal immigrants, but local sheriff's and police departments don't have the jurisdiction to enforce immigration laws, Hale said, and it can be frustrating for them.

"If one of the contributions we can make is to capture the data," he said, "then at least we've done everything we can do."

I think it's a very good idea...I think all LEO's should know who, where, and what concerning the illegals..remember what our vice whacko said..
We don't know who they are, we don't know where they are and we don't know what they're doing here.....hmmm??

As far as Americans being 'happy that they're here' I don't believe a word of that...we're very unhappy that they're here regardless...unless 'they' come here via legal means.

RR

There really needs to be a state immigration police force in most states. This is a good step forward in that direction.