November 30, 2008


Unreliable figures add to confusion

By DEBORAH HIRSCH
Courier-Post Staff

Controversy over Attorney General Anne Miligram's directive is compounded by confusion about how many referrals have come to immigration, who made them and why.

In a yearlong period starting in August 2007, when the directive was issued, federal authorities recorded 20,354 referrals. The state counted 13,335.

Immigration officials said those numbers are probably lower because they might not include calls from prisons, probation offices, the public and other agencies.

The directive says officers must document when and how they notify immigration authorities, and the reason they believe someone to be undocumented. Every time they send a referral to immigration authorities, they must also notify the county prosecutor's office and court officer that will be handling the case. County prosecutors are then supposed to report the total number of referrals to the state each year.

Theoretically, those numbers should match or come close to the state's breakdowns, but tri-county officials reported much lower totals. The Camden County Prosecutor's Office, for example, counted 60 referrals while the state had 248.

Though state and federal officials said they do not have a breakdown of what offenses led to the referrals, Camden County had a list. Many of the 60 referrals came after arrests for indictable crimes such as forgery, child abuse and aggravated or sexual assault.

Others were not so clear because they were classified in vague categories such as "drug possession," or "fraud," in which cases could be
Delaware River Port Authority spokeswoman Danelle Hunter said one driver who was stopped for a false license plate had an outstanding warrant from immigration, but she couldn't explain two other referrals for traffic violations that had supposedly come from her agency.indictable depending on the specific charges.

But at least five of the offenses -- four traffic violations and one simple assault -- were not indictable. So why were these people referred to immigration?


Likewise, Berlin Township Police Chief Michael Hayden said his department had only referred two serious criminals and didn't know why the county thought they had referred a traffic stop.

Reach Deborah Hirsch at (856) 486-2476 or dhirsch@camden.gannett.com

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