Thread: Will CCSO-ICE partnership be a success?Answer may lie with N

Will CCSO-ICE partnership be a success?
Answer may lie with North Carolina program


http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/sep ... aking_news

Will CCSO-ICE partnership be a success?
Answer may lie with North Carolina program

By Ryan Mills

Friday, September 21, 2007

Expectations are high for the 27 Collier County Sheriff’s Office deputies and corrections officers who graduated this week from a monthlong cross-training program with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The training will allow the deputies to, in effect, act as local immigration and deportation agents.

Using federal databases and the knowledge of immigration law they acquired in the program, the deputies will have the ability to quickly and accurately identify criminal aliens they encounter in the community and inside Collier jails.

The goal is to reduce crime and, ultimately, the number of jail inmates by removing criminal aliens from the country after they’ve served their sentences.

But will it work?

The answer may lie more than 700 miles to the north, in Charlotte N.C., where just over a year ago the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office established a partnership with ICE to implement a similar program in its jail.

Mecklenburg sheriff’s officials say the partnership with ICE has been both effective — placing more than 2,000 inmates into removal proceedings in just over a year — and popular with residents. But Latino activists in Mecklenburg County have criticized the partnership, saying it has reduced hard-earned trust in local law enforcement and focuses too much on illegal immigrants who are arrested for minor traffic offenses.

Mecklenburg currently has 11 deputies who, like the Collier deputies, have been cross-trained with ICE, said Mecklenburg sheriff’s spokeswoman Julia Rush. The cross-training, which is allowed under section 287(g) of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, has been championed in North Carolina by Mecklenburg Sheriff Jim Pendergraph.

“Over the last four to five years the sheriff has seen a significant increase in the number of people in our jail who he believed to be illegal,â€

"Of the illegal immigrants who were placed into removal proceedings, 771 were charged with traffic violations, 595 were charged with driving while intoxicated, 237 were charged with assault and 164 were charged with drugs, a Mecklenburg Sheriff’s Office report said. Only 227 of those placed into removal proceedings were charged with felonies, the report said."

771 Traffic violations - NOT DANGEROUS?

595 DUI's - Illegals are killing citizens hourly in this country. NOT DANGEROUS?

237 Assaults - NOT DANGEROUS?

164 Drugs - NOT DANGEROUS?

What? An ILLEGAL should only be arrested and deported if they MURDER?

ALL THE ABOVE ACTIONS ARE DANGEROUS.