Thread: FL- ICE denies partnership agreement to LCSO

Sunday, July 12, 2009

ICE denies partnership agreement to LCSO



MILLARD K. IVES



TAVARES -- More than a year after the Lake County Sheriff's Office applied for a partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to better address issues concerning illegal aliens in house, that request has been denied approval.

The new partnerships are designed to help local law enforcement agencies align their priorites with those of Immigration and Customs Enforcement -- specifically with regard to the identification and removal of criminal aliens, according to a press release by the Department of Homeland Security.

Eleven new partnering agencies were announced Friday by the Department of Homeland Security as part of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's recent standardization of an agreement used to enter into the partnerships, but the Lake County Sheriff's Office was not one of those selected.

When questioned about Lake's omission, sheriff's spokesman John Herrell said he didn't know what to say.

"We haven't received notification that we've been denied, so we're not sure whether or not our request is still under review or if additional agreements will be granted in the near future," Herrell stated in a e-mail.

The Department of Homeland Security press release adds that in an effort to address concerns that individuals may be arrested for minor offenses as a guise to initiate removal proceedings, the new agreement specifies that participating local law enforcement agencies must pursue all criminal charges that originally caused the offender to be taken into custody.

It is not clear why the Lake County Sheriff's Office was left off the new list, or if it would be added in the future. However, the sheriff's office has been facing mounting accusations of racial profiling, of acting as ICE agents and detaining Hispanics without charges -- ever since a deputy responding to a call in 2008 was allegedly beaten by a group of Hispanics in Sorrento.

The accusations increased this year after a Honduran woman, serving as an interpreter for her sister withTavares police during a domestic assault call, was arrested after officers discovered she was in the country illegally.

The Sheriff's office was not involved in the arrest, but was accused by her family of detaining her for a week in jail without charges -- before handing her to immigration officials.

Sheriff Gary Borders denied the accusations of racial profiling at a community meeting in Sorrento last month held to address the concerns. He said during the meeting his department was requesting the ICE partnership as a result of residents' request during community meetings.

To date, ICE has trained more than 1,000 officers operating under 66 local agreements between the Department of Homeland Security and law enforcement agencies nationwide.

Janet Napolitano, secretary for Department of Homeland Security, praised the new agreement.

"This new agreement supports local efforts to protect public safety by giving law enforcement the tools to identify and remove dangerous criminal aliens," said Secretary Napolitano in the press release. "It also promotes consistency across the board to ensure that all of our state and local law enforcement partners are using the same standards in implementing the program."

http://www.dailycommercial.com/localnew ... /071209ICE

I don't think it was the police department who reported her but rather the jail if she was arrested. The jails obtain immigration information. If she was a victim then they would also not report her as she would see a domestic violence detective or counsellor who would have told her that she could get a temporary greencard whcih is good for 2 years and she could then apply for a permanent one.
In this case I think ICE may have been told to put things on hold due to tghe possibility of amnesty.