Dole Wants to Help North Carolina Sheriffs Enforce Federal Immigration Laws

Posted: Today at 11:47 a.m.
http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/1738854/

RALEIGH, N.C. — Sen. Elizabeth Dole said she wants to help North Carolina counties deal with illegal immigration, suggesting that federal money could help sheriffs participate in a program that allows them to enforce immigration laws.

"Illegal aliens have committed crimes, often over and over and over again, and what can we do?" Dole asked Thursday during a meeting with sheriffs in Raleigh. "We need to stop the catch and release."

Dole, R-North Carolina, has been touring the state to meet with sheriffs and discuss how illegal immigration affects local law enforcement.

A program established in 1996 allows sheriffs to be trained to enforce federal immigration law, but some sheriffs said handling federal law would divert deputies from other tasks. But they said the program was needed to help keep their jails clear.

Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison said up to 15 percent of the inmates in the county jail might be illegal immigrants. In Mecklenburg County, the sheriff has proposed building a separate, 1,500-bed detention facility for detained immigrants.

Mecklenburg County is involved in the program that trains deputies to work with federal officials to enforce immigration laws, while county commissioners elsewhere in North Carolina have adopted policies to halt funding for services used by illegal residents that aren't mandated by the federal government.

An estimated 400,000 illegal immigrants work on farms, construction sites, meatpacking plants and in hotels and restaurants in North Carolina.

Dole helped defeat a bill in Congress to give illegal immigrants a route to citizenship, saying voters told her they wanted the border sealed and the law enforced.

Some advocates for immigrants said the law Dole promotes gives sheriffs a financial reason to jail people because they are paid for the nights a federal prisoner is held. The advocates also said the law promotes profiling.

"As an immigrant, you never know driving from one county to the next what your rights are," said Marisol Jimenez McGee, advocacy director for El Pueblo, a statewide Hispanic group.