Sheriff faces off with ACLU over 287 (g) records
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March 23, 2009 - 5:35 PM
Robert Boyer / Times-News



The Alamance County Sheriff's Department is the only North Carolina law enforcement agency connected to 287(g) that is refusing to comply with requests for a slew of documents related to the illegal immigration enforcement program, says an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union.



Twelve of 13 agencies, including the state Highway Patrol and other sheriff's departments, are complying with the requests from the ACLU of North Carolina, said Katherine Lewis Parker, the organization's legal director.

Legal action is a possibility if Sheriff Terry Johnson doesn't provide the documents, Parker said.

The 287(g) program, named for part of a congressional act, allows federal authorities to train and deputize local lawmen as Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and provides their departments with access to federal immigration and identification computer databases.

Last week, the ACLU renewed earlier information requests to Johnson.

In a letter to County Attorney Clyde Albright, the ACLU demanded the release of agreements and other documents between the sheriff's office and the federal departments of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security. The ACLU also wants e-mail correspondence, and inquiries or complaints from local residents.

Johnson's department is the only agency that received a demand letter among the 13 Tar Heel counties who have 287(g) or access to it through the Secure Communities program, Parker said Monday.

"Were doing due diligence. We're not picking on Alamance County," she said. "Out of all 13 counties, the only sheriff to say that the public citizens are not entitiled to these documents" is Johnson.

Among other things, the ACLU wants monthly reports "related to individuals arrested and processed for misdemeanors who have prior convictions," according to a letter to Albright.

The ACLU wants the reports, Parker said, to gauge how many people were processed through 287(g) on felony versus misdemeanor charges.

Earlier data the ACLU obtained from Johnson's department and others in North Carolina show that a majority of the arrestees were processed for "misdemeanors and traffic offenses," Parker said.

Targeting those committing low-level offenses runs counter to the intent of federal requirements for 287(g), Parker said.

The program has been in place about two years in Alamance County. Before its implementation, Johnson said his department would target those committing felonies and violent crime. Over time, the sheriff has changed his position, saying that his deputies will arrest those who drive without a license and some other traffic offenses. Arrestees who are foreign-born are then processed through 287(g), he said.

Johnson has consistently maintained his officers follow 287(g) to the letter of the law and don't profile or otherwise target Hispanics.

Parker said there have been more 287(g)-related complaints from Alamance County to the ACLU than from any other area of the state, including reports that the sheriff's department is setting up license checkpoints in "Hispanic areas," she said.

The ACLU wants the Alamance County documents, among other things, to see if there is any evidence of "potential racial profiling in regards to where the checkpoints are set up."

"If the sheriff doesn't have anything to hide, what's the problem with handing over the documents?"

On Monday, Johnson said he is consulting with Albright see what his department can turn over to the ACLU.

Many of the records are under federal control and some records don't exist because he isn't required to keep them, he said.

Other ACLU requests leave Johnson scratching his head.

For example, Johnson said he doesn't know what an ACLU request for "Copies of Questionnaire for Public Trust Positions for all 287(g)-trained officers" means.

The sheriff said the ACLU should have instead filed Freedom of Information Act requests with the federal authorities. "I'm sure they've done it but can't get" the information, he added.

The sheriff said he has personally spent "probably 200 hours" answering such requests from the ACLU and others. He renewed his earlier call that document-seekers come to his department and dig into the records on their own time and pay for any copies. The exact cost is still being worked out, he said.

Johnson said the ACLU requests amount to little more than an attempt to shut down the 287(g) program in Alamance County. "They're trying to beat us down."

More transparency and limiting 287(g) to those committing felonies are ways to improve the initiative "without scrapping the whole program," Parker said.

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