Arrest renews debate over handling of criminal aliens
By DAVE MONTGOMERY
Star-Telegram Austin Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Sheriff Jim Pendergraph first noticed the changes in his jail population early in the decade, as illegal immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries poured into Charlotte and elsewhere in Mecklenburg County, N.C., to find jobs in the robust North Carolina economy.

In Butler County, Ohio, Sheriff Richard K. Jones became so frustrated with the swelling population of illegal immigrant suspects in his jail a couple of years ago that he symbolically billed the federal government for his incarceration costs and posted a big yellow sign near the jail reading: "Illegal aliens here."

Pendergraph and Jones are part of a growing national debate over how to handle illegal immigrant criminals, a debate that's flared anew with the arrest of an illegal immigrant in the execution-style slayings of three college students in New Jersey.

Criminal aliens, as the federal government classifies them, constitute more than a fourth of the inmates in federal prisons. Those still at large often fall between the cracks of an overburdened and uneven enforcement system, escaping detection and deportation.

More than 300,000 criminal aliens are expected to be placed in state and local jails this year, according to a forecast last year by the Homeland Security Department's inspector general. Most might remain in this country after serving their sentences because the federal government lacks the resources to identify, detain and deport them, the audit said.

The suspect in the Newark, N.J., killings, Jose Carranza, is an illegal immigrant from Peru who was out on bond on assault and child-rape charges. Authorities said they were unaware that Carranza was in the country illegally, largely because local policy prohibits officers from questioning suspects about their immigration status.

'Sanctuary' policies

Newark is one of dozens of cities with "sanctuary" policies designed to keep officers from racially profiling suspects and intimidating immigrant communities, thus making them reluctant to report crimes and cooperate with authorities.

The Newark case erupted barely two months after Congress abandoned efforts to overhaul immigration laws, bringing new calls from law-and-order conservatives to further safeguard the border and root out lawbreakers among the nation's 12 million or more illegal immigrants.

Pro-immigrant groups and a number of big-city police officials defend sanctuary policies and argue that police departments should concentrate on enforcing state and local laws rather than federal immigration policy.

In a study this year, the Immigration Policy Center contended that the perception of "immigrant criminality" is greatly exaggerated, noting that illegal immigrants commit proportionately much fewer crimes than native-born white males.

But others, including Pendergraph and Jones, say the accused immigrant in Newark is just one example of what they describe as a deeply flawed approach to dealing with criminal aliens.

"Most of them fall between the cracks," Pendergraph said. "How many in this country are arrested daily for serious crimes and have been convicted of serious crimes before, and nobody has bothered to check on their immigration status? It's obscene."

Different priorities

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a branch of the Homeland Security Department, is charged with finding and removing criminal aliens. But ICE officials say they're stretched thin and often hampered by state and local sanctuary policies that limit cooperation.

"What we hope for is to improve our relationship with these local law enforcement agencies," said Deborah Achim, the ICE assistant director for detention and removal operations.

The police departments of eight major cities -- including Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and Miami-Dade -- said in a joint statement last year that local police can't "even begin to consider dedicating limited local resources to immigration enforcement" until the federal government seals the border.

"More than 300,000 criminal aliens are expected to be placed in state and local jails this year, according to a forecast last year by the Homeland Security Department's inspector general. "

I think that estimate is very low.

If you want to really get shocked, pick up a copy of Dick Morris' book "Outrage" and read the chapter on illegal immigration. Or go to the "NumberUSA" web site and view the video entitled "Immigration by the Numbers". We're just seeing the tip of a nasty iceberg.

Arrest policy changed on illegal immigrants
County's new procedure may make it harder to elude deportation

By SUSAN CARROLL
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

The Harris County Sheriff's Office has stopped issuing "non-arrest" bonds to illegal immigrants, closing what victim advocates called a loophole that allowed some suspects to dodge deportation.

The new policy was implemented on Aug. 22, the same day the Houston Chronicle published a story on Juan Felix Salinas, an illegal immigrant accused of causing a crash that killed three people while he was free on a non-arrest bond.

"We certainly applaud the change," said Andy Kahan, director of the Mayor's Crime Victims Office.

Before the policy took effect, Harris County Jail officials allowed suspects with outstanding warrants for certain relatively minor crimes to pay "non-arrest" bonds without being formally booked, sheriff's Sgt. D.M. Mackey said.

Crime victims advocates complained that allowed illegal immigrants to avoid contact with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Mackey said the decision to change the "non-arrest" bond policy was designed to help ICE better identify illegal immigrants.

I know that in many countries, if you are a lawful visitor/immigrant to that country, and you are charged with a serious crime, you are not leaving that country until that case is resolved in your favor. With violent crimes, you are not leaving the jails of those countries until the case is resolved in your favor.

If you are illegally in other countries, you ain't getting out of jail until that case is resolved in your favor.

I realize we have a different constitution, but why do we protect illegal immigrants to this country when charged with a serious crime. It is very hard to explain to a victim of a serious violent crime whose illegal alien offender has fled the US to avoid prosecution after bonding out of jail, as I have had to do on several occasions in my career, why we let that offender out on bond.

The bigger cities here in Texas have ICE agents assigned to their jails, but what about the smaller counties?

Should police also be immigration agents?

Web Posted: 11/18/2007 11:31 PM CST

Hern�n Rozemberg
Express-News
As city council members and state lawmakers across the country have taken the fight against illegal immigration into their own hands, so have police agencies that are no longer willing to wait for Washington to solve the problem.
But while city halls and state legislatures sometimes blame the federal government, on the law enforcement side it's all about cooperation.

A section of a 1996 federal immigration law written by U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, has offered local law enforcement agencies a chance to help enforce immigration law. But the program has had few takers � until this year.

The "287g" program allows municipal, county and state law enforcement officers to apply for a five-week training academy run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Once certified, officers become deputized immigration agents.

Since a Florida police agency was first approved in 2002, nearly three dozen others in 15 states have signed up, producing a total of 597 certified officers. Participation accelerated in 2007 and is expected to balloon by next year � an additional 80 agencies have applied, including several in Texas, many of them in the Dallas area.

Some Texas police officials, however, have decided against it, often because they believe community members would be less likely to trust or approach officers who have the power to identify and process undocumented immigrants.

The Texas Department of Public Safety's policy is to turn over to federal authorities anybody who might be in the country illegally, agency spokesman Tom Vinger said.

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, echoing the views of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, has said he is concerned that participating in 287g would hurt efforts to build rapport with immigrant communities.

Some agencies listed a more pragmatic reason for passing it up: a lack of resources.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to have trained officers, but manpower is tight enough with the current workload, said Ronald Bennett, a deputy chief at the Bexar County Sheriff's Office.

"The more our officers know, the better," said Bennett, who supervises a two-officer team working with ICE to investigate human trafficking cases.

"But we can't take on additional expenses, so I just don't see it happening here," he said, noting that while ICE covers training sessions, all other 287g costs fall on local agencies.

The Sheriff's Office still gets a helping hand from ICE agents in San Antonio, who routinely make checks in local jails to identify inmates who are in the country illegally. The agency declined to describe that work and denied an Express-News request to accompany agents doing the checks, citing privacy concerns.

For the growing number of law enforcement agencies that have signed up for 287g, the potential payoff is worth it.

Mark Dubina oversees the domestic security squad at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the state's criminal investigative agency, which became the first in the country to sign a 287g contract in 2002.

The program has worked out well due to its narrow focus on targeting suspected criminals, Dubina said. In five years the agency has been able to deport hundreds of people who otherwise would have been released on bail or after serving sentences, he said.

His officers can question, arrest and process undocumented immigrants on the spot without waiting for federal law enforcement agencies, Dubina said. Those who can quickly prove their legal status are immediately released if no other charge is brought, he said.

Dubina's experience exemplifies why several police and sheriff's departments in Texas want to sign up.

The immigration enforcement powers gained with program accreditation range from investigations to traffic stops. For Dave Thurman, it's simply about being able to determine for himself who's in his jail.

Thurman, chief deputy at the Randall County Sheriff's Department based in Amarillo, said he wants five to 10 of his officers able to question and determine inmates' immigration status without having to wait for ICE agents.

Police chiefs in the Dallas area who have applied said they're not planning to deploy officers to roam the streets looking for deportable immigrants. But if they stop people who are in the country illegally, they shouldn't have to set them free just because federal agents couldn't pick them up, they said.

"It's about having one more tool in our tool belt," said John Duscio, chief of the 48-officer department in Wylie, a city of 40,000 about 30 miles north of Dallas. "This is a homeland security issue. We may stop a terrorist and not even know it. I'd rather know it."

Critics of the 287g program say there's a good reason why other police chiefs don't want anything to do with it. Crime in immigrant-heavy communities will increase if people fear that calling the police will get them deported, opponents said.

Such skeptics, typically immigrant advocates, cite examples like the case of Danny Sigui in Rhode Island four years ago. Sigui, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, approached local police after witnessing a murder.

Thinking he was doing a good deed, Sigui became the prosecution's star witness in winning the conviction of the accused murderer. Two days later, immigration agents arrested, jailed and eventually deported Sigui.

Ironically, Sigui was turned in by the prosecutors he helped � they told him they had no other choice after discovering he was in the country illegally. Before being shipped out, Sigui was quoted in news reports as being regretful for having come forward.

It was a situation that South Texas law enforcement agencies want to avoid, said Nina Perales, who directs the San Antonio office of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

"With a substantial immigrant population in San Antonio and South Texas, they'd be alienating a huge chunk of the community" if they participated, Perales said.

Still, the 287g program is growing, fueled by the rise of immigration restriction as a political cause. And the idea might even get a boost from Congress � if approved, a bill introduced in September would set aside funding to cover training, manpower and equipment for local authorities to enforce immigration laws.

The measure would even strip so-called "sanctuary cities", where local cops are barred from teaming up with federal immigration agents, of federal funds that reimburse them for costs incurred by jailing illegal immigrants.