Thread: TN: Team of Metro deputies begin federal ...

Thursday, 03/22/07

Team of Metro deputies begin federal immigration law enforcement
Sheriff says task force may speed deportation for illegal immigrant law-breakers

By TIM GHIANNI
Staff Writer


Five arrested immigrants were identified for federal detention this week during a test-run of a new Metro Jail program that Sheriff Daron Hall says could lead to the possible deportation of up to 1,000 illegal aliens each year.

Thursday marked the graduation ceremony for 15 Davidson County sheriff’s deputies who have been specially trained by federal authorities to check the immigration backgrounds of every foreign-born prisoner booked at Nashville’s main lockup.




A day earlier, eager to begin after completing their five-week Immigration and Customs Enforcement training, deputies pulled the records of a handful of inmates who were serving time after having been convicted of crimes.

“It was discovered all five of them were here illegally,” Hall said Thursday.

As a result, immigration holds were placed on the prisoners, meaning that instead of being released into the public after their sentences are completed, they will be turned over to federal officers for deportation proceedings.

“Before this, they were released on the streets after serving their sentences … and committing crimes,” the sheriff said. He added that illegal immigrant offenders often had “multiple contacts with the criminal justice system and were being released.”

The program should be fully operational in about three weeks.

Nashville is among about a half-dozen U.S. cities participating in a federal program in which local officers are trained to enforce immigration laws. Hall sought out the program last year, after several high-profile crimes in which illegal immigrants were later arrested.

In some of those cases, it was learned that the illegal aliens had been arrested repeatedly and released without any scrutiny of their immigration status.

The program comes at a time when the number of foreign-born inmates is soaring. Last fiscal year, 4,173 foreign-born prisoners were booked into the Metro Jail. That’s roughly double the number five years ago.

Foreign-born suspects make up roughly 10 percent of the arrested population in Davidson County. About 75 percent of arrested immigrants are Hispanic, Hall said.

In the past, jail deputies would send information about suspected illegal immigrants to federal officials outside the state, but the information often went ignored, forcing local authorities to release the prisoners on bail or to release them after their sentences were completed, Hall has said.

As a result, just 157 prisoners were subject to immigration holds, typically only after committing very serious crimes.

The program is being watched warily by many in Nashville’s burgeoning Hispanic community.

“No one … in Nashville will want to be in the situation in which there is the possibility they can be deported overnight,” says Yuri Cunza, president of the Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

While “law enforcement has to do their job,” he says, there’s real fear that a minor infraction could have devastating “consequences that can affect families.”

Hall said he is working to address concerns, particularly in the Hispanic community, by having meetings with an advisory council that includes prominent members of the immigrant population and their advocates.

Cunza isn’t on that panel but he has spoken with Hall and wants the conversations to continue. He says the program will lead to “casualties, the few that get caught in the middle.”

Between now and mid-April, the deputies will continue “learning on the job” by running the information of some foreign-born Metro inmates through screening equipment at the federal immigration enforcement offices in Metro Center.

“We’ll get the equipment in (the Metro Jail) March 26,” says Hall. “Then we’ll be working the bugs out.”

Once fully operation, the routine booking process will include inmates being screened for immigration history, through federal computers, interviews and other investigative techniques.

Immigration authorities make regular trips to Metro Jail to pick up federal detainees.
Ultimately, Hall said, those in inmates will be “placed for removal” and “a judge will have to decide whether to deport them.”

Theresa Harmon, co-founder of Tennesseans for Responsible Immigration Policies is pleased the program has begun.

“We’ve had several Tennesseans who were killed by illegal aliens who had prior arrests,” said the Wilson County resident, whose group advocates for stricter laws against illegal immigration. “At some point they had come in contact with the law, even on minor offenses.

“So if this had been in place at that time, we would have several Tennesseans who would more than likely be alive now.”

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“Within the next few weeks we will be doing this work ourselves, but it won’t be done in the booking room until April 16,” Sheriff Daron Hall said Wednesday.

But the 15 Sheriff’s Deputies scheduled to graduate today from their ICE training course used the inmate training to prepare for what will be their own responsibility when the immigration enforcement program – 287 g – is officially up and running in Nashville on or about April 16, Hall said.

“Imagine what they’re doing now as interviewing patients in the upstairs part of a hospital. What we’ll be doing when this is ready to go is essentially conducting those interviews in the emergency room,” Hall said, referring to the booking facility that will be outfitted with federal immigration computers and software by next week.

Hall said as early as Monday his 287 (g)-trained deputies will begin screening inmates.

“And we are now and will be continuing to interview those foreign-born inmates who are serving long enough sentences where we know they wouldn’t be going home tomorrow anyway,” Hall said.

Thanks to help from Nashville’s Congressional delegation – notably Sen. Lamar Alexander and Rep. Jim Cooper – Hall’s 287 (g) application was fast-tracked though the Department of Homeland Security Office of Assistant Secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement Julie Myers.

Now, Myers’ office is considering another application from Tennessee – a 287 (g) application sent in by the state Department of Safety on behalf of the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP).

And while Nashville Sheriff’s personnel were completing their training with federal immigration officials, a separate group of ICE representatives were also in Nashville on Wednesday to meet with THP officials and Safety Commissioner David Mitchell.

Mitchell said the purpose of the meeting was to discuss how THP resources would be affected should the state’s application also be accepted.

“We are having serious discussions about how many resources we will have deputized and how we will implement the program statewide,” Mitchell said.

If the application is approved and a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is then signed, Mitchell said it could be six months to a year before Highway Patrol officials undertake federal immigration authority as well.

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