Thread: ANOTHER AMERICAN HERO.

[b]We are not alone and let's give Sheriff Johnson our support and let him know he is not alone.[/b



Sheriffs help feds deport illegal aliens

Johnson is sheriff in Alamance.

Sheriffs help feds deport illegal aliens
No language barrier for IRS; immigrants pay, too
Hispanic DWIs rooted in immigrants' culture
Good job, good life, all gone

By Kristin Collins, Staff Writer
GRAHAM - Sheriff Terry Johnson's new jail has all the amenities: electronic locks, thick steel doors and a high-tech surveillance system.
Soon, he hopes, it will be full of illegal immigrants on their way to deportation.
The Alamance County Sheriff's Department, which Johnson has run since 2002, recently became one of only a dozen local law enforcement agencies nationwide to sign up for a program that allows them to enforce federal immigration laws.
Three of the 12 are in North Carolina. Sheriff's departments in Mecklenburg, Gaston and Alamance counties are now checking the immigration status of every foreign person they arrest -- whether for running a stop sign or selling drugs -- and starting deportation of those in the United States illegally.

In Mecklenburg County, which has been using the program for less than a year, nearly 1,000 people have been deported.

Once a little-used program, local immigration enforcement is gaining popularity. Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison said he is considering it.J
ohnson said the program has dual benefits for Alamance County. It brings in money, because the federal government pays about $66 a night for every immigration detainee who stays in the jail. And it rids the county of illegal immigrants, who he contends sponge public resources and are more prone to commit crimes than legal residents.
"Their values are a lot different -- their morals -- than what we have here," Johnson said. "In Mexico, there's nothing wrong with having sex with a 12-, 13-year-old girl ... They do a lot of drinking down in Mexico."

Marco Zarate, a Mexican native who is president of the N.C. Society of Hispanic Professionals, challenged the sheriff's assessment of Mexicans. He acknowledged some cultural differences -- for instance, people in Mexico's rural areas often marry as teenagers -- but said that adults having sex with children is not considered ethical in Mexico. Nor is heavy drinking.

"We're human," said Zarate, 53, who lives in Raleigh. "I'm not saying there are not people who do bad things, but it's not right to generalize. We have good people and bad people everywhere in the world."

And we do not need anymore.

Court statistics do not show a significantly disproportionate level of Hispanic crime in Alamance County. Between 2002 and 2006, Hispanics accounted for 12 percent of Alamance County's criminal cases, according to the Administrative Office of the Courts. In 2005, they made up 10 percent of the county's population.

Running against aliens

Alamance County, just west of Chapel Hill, has one of the fastest-growing Hispanic populations in the state. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county had 736 Hispanic residents in 1990. By 2005, it had nearly 14,000.

This is what I mean, overwhelming.

As in many places around the country, the increasing presence of immigrants has fueled tensions.

Johnson, 57, a retired agent with the State Bureau of Investigation, was elected to his second term in 2006 by a wide margin. A Republican, he has made his political name by railing against illegal immigration.Shortly after he first won the office in 2002, he got national media attention for arresting Hispanics at the state Division of Motor Vehicles office. Deputies charged more than 100 people with obtaining property by false pretenses for using false documents to get licenses.At the time, legal immigration status was not a factor in the state driver's license requirements. Some of the charges were later dropped.
Before the presidential election in 2004, he promised to go door-to-door to investigate Hispanic voters, saying he suspected many were illegal immigrants. To prove his point, he sent the names of 125 Hispanic voters to the Department of Homeland Security. He said the federal check showed that only about a quarter of them were legal. http://www.newsobserver.com/1154/story/566759.html

I like Terry, knew him when he was deputy sheriff with the Pitt County Sheriffs Department after his graduation from ECU.Gee, I understand he got his nose broke once in a strongman competition fight. heeheeehee, I'm might be his skeleton in the closet.

But don't expect him to reply to emails.

Sheriff cracks down on criminal illegal immigrants
05/02/2007 08:31 PM
By: Kira Mathis

BURLINGTON, N.C. -- Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson said more and more illegal immigrants are choosing to move to the area. While many want a better life in the United States, he said some are causing trouble.



The Alamance County Sheriff’s Office is cracking down on the lawbreakers and sending them back to their home country.



The Sheriff’s Office has teamed up with Homeland Security and is now screening anyone who is processed by law enforcement and was not born in the U.S. to see if they are legal citizens.



"One of the things that we're using is the 287-G program where our officers have been trained to scan and screen all inmates that are brought to the Alamance County jail that are of foreign descent that have come here, to see if they are past criminal illegal aliens and if they are did they enter the country illegally or legally," Sheriff Johnson explained.



But people in the Latino community say the initiative could have a negative impact.



David Duarte is the pastor at Iglesia Cristiana Internacional in Greensboro.



He said the members of his church came to the United States for a better life. And he worries that people will be afraid of police.



"I think that people definitely will not trust, will not make the call, would not… maybe would not stop when they are approached by an officer," Duarte said.



Sheriff Johnson saidLatinos should not be afraid to report crimes because they do not run checks on crime victims.

http://news14.com/content/headlines/581 ... fault.aspx