By Curt Brown
The Standard-Times

Posted Aug. 4, 2015 at 8:01 PM
Updated at 8:09 PM

DARTMOUTH — Standing in front of rows of empty beds that in the past were filled by undocumented immigrants detained for committing crimes, Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson complained about federal policies he said are allowing immigrants to be released and possibly commit more crimes.

Hodgson said he is upset with President Barack Obama's immigration policies, known as Priority Enforcement Program, which he argued are allowing undocumented immigrants "three, four, five bites of the apple" before they are deported.
Law enforcement is spending considerable resources to get "bad guys" off the streets and federal authorities are releasing them right back into the neighborhoods of Bristol County, he said.

"It is unconscionable that after spending resources to investigate and apprehend criminal illegal aliens and remove them from our streets that the federal government would order sheriffs to release them back into our neighborhoods to victimize our citizens, legal residents, and their families once again," he said.

The greatest number of inmates ever at the Immigration Detention Center, located on the complex of the Bristol County House of Correction, was 232 in June 2014, Hodgson said. Currently, there are 67.

"Where is the balance of those detainees?" he asked, answering his own question by saying they have returned to local neighborhoods throughout the county and are likely committing more crimes.

"Hundreds" of detainees, charged with serious assault and drug crimes, have been released from the Dartmouth detention facility, Hodgson said.

He described Obama's policies as purely political.

"It's all about politics. It's all about votes," he said.

The sheriff said both political parties in Congress share the blame for the lack of immigration reform.
"Congress isn't doing its job," he said.

The sheriff said he has been dealing with the issue of immigration since 1998 and is "frustrated" over Congress' failure to pass immigration reform.

Hodgson said he backs the National Sheriffs' Association in its efforts to secure the U.S. borders, especially in the Southwest, and then assign immigration judges there, he said.

On the issue of immigration, and only this issue, Hodgson said he sees Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as "a champion of the people."

The current situation is not fair to either U.S. citizens or immigrants who want to become citizens, he said.
"It's being used as a political football," he said.

http://www.heraldnews.com/article/20...NEWS/150808693