Thread: Where's the Plan?

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Friday, October 12, 2007
Where's the Plan?


Winston-Salem Journal


Give your opinion on this editorial


Now that Forsyth County officials have visited the Mecklenburg County Central Jail and heard about how well its program to check the immigration status of inmates works, those officials should hammer out a plan of action. Forsyth commissioners should order up a detailed analysis of what the federal program would cost here. They should then allocate Sheriff Bill Schatzman enough money to operate it - and the sheriff should finally get aggressive about starting it.

The program in Mecklenburg has helped send almost 3,000 illegal immigrants to deportation hearings. Despite criticisms of such programs, this is a land of laws, and entering this country illegally is a crime.

Schatzman, who decides whether the program will happen in his jail, agrees. He has expressed serious reservations about the program. But he told the Journal yesterday that he would like to have the program - if commissioners will give him the money to do it.

Commissioners and the sheriff are in the midst of a long impasse over this concern. Commissioners want the program; the sheriff says he doesn’t have enough manpower for it.

Commissioners set aside $20,000 in this year’s budget as a show of support for the program, but did little to increase the sheriff’s manpower. To get the program going, commissioners must assure him that they’ll give his office more money for manpower for the program as it gets off the ground. The allocation should be a reasonable one tied to the program, and not to other broader manpower requests the sheriff might have.

Although the application process and training for the program are free, Forsyth County must supply the staff and house inmates found to be here illegally until they are turned over to federal agents. As it is now, Forsyth jailers check the immigration status only of inmates charged with serious crimes.

Critics say that the program would amount to an impractical roundup of illegal immigrants, a persecution of them. But that’s not what this program is about. Nor is it about deputies going up to Hispanics on the street and checking their immigration status. What it is about is officers determining whether people who have been charged with a crime and jailed are here legally or illegally. That’s reasonable enough. And it’s reasonable to turn inmates who are found to be here illegally over to the federal government. In addition, this program could well turn up illegal immigrants who are wanted for serious crimes in their own countries.

Any real change in immigration control has to come from the federal government. This program is just a way for Forsyth to confront the problem when it spills into its jail.

Mecklenburg and other North Carolina counties are already doing that. Forsyth commissioners and Schatzman need to come up with a plan to start such a program at the Forsyth County Jail.

I would say any step, no matter how small, is a step in the right direction. If we are going to solve this problem we have to start somewhere.

Well said Cakers! We have to stop talking and start acting. There's not any easy way to clean up this mess, and the sooner we get started the sooner we will be on the road to recovery!