Posted on 10/03/2009 12:05:02 PM PDT by IbJensen
(CNSNews.com) – The Congressional Hispanic Caucus has asked the Obama administration to “immediately terminate” a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) program that has identified more than 120,000 illegal aliens over the past three years..
“On behalf of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), we write to ask that you immediately terminate all Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) under the 287(g) program and cease to establish such agreements,” reads the letter to President Obama.
“These agreements are the subject of serious concern as local law enforcement agencies have used the new powers to target communities of color, including a disproportionate number of Latinos, for arrest,” says the letter. “The 287(g) program, which was significantly expanded throughout the Bush Administration, relinquishes the power to enforce federal immigration laws to local law enforcement and corrections agencies. … The misuse of the 287(g) program by its current participants has rendered it ineffective and dangerous to community safety.”
The program, the 287 (g) section added to the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, created a partnership between the Department of Homeland Security’s ICE and state and local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration laws.
The Sept. 28 letter is signed by caucus leaders Reps. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.) and Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.).
The letter cites a March 2009 Government Accountability Office report that “found alarming examples of mismanagement and insufficient oversight of this controversial program.”
However, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said 287(g) has undergone a “sea change” since the “standardization” of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was announced by Secretary Janet Napolitano in July, and that the changes were designed to make the program more accountable.
“ICE takes the concerns raised about the program by the signatories to this letter very seriously,” Matthew Chandler told CNSNews.com. “The new, standardized 287(g) agreements that were announced in July strengthen ICE's oversight of the program and make our communities safer by identifying and removing criminal aliens who pose a public safety threat.”
“This new agreement supports local efforts to protect public safety by giving law enforcement the tools to identify and remove dangerous criminal aliens,” Napolitano said in a July 10 statement. “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 287(g) program.”
The new MOA aligns 287(g) local operations with major ICE enforcement priorities, specifically, the identification and removal of criminal aliens, according to DHS.
The DHS said the new MOA also defines the objectives of the 287(g) program, outlines the immigration enforcement authorities granted by the agreement, and provides guidelines for ICE’s supervision of local agency officer operations, information reporting and tracking, complaint procedures and implementation measures.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) “The 287(g) program is an essential component of DHS’s comprehensive immigration enforcement strategy,” ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton said in the same July 10 statement. “The new agreement strengthens ICE’s oversight of the program and allows us to better utilize the resources and capabilities of our law enforcement partners across the nation.”
The letter from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus says state and local law enforcement “use their expanded and often unchecked powers under the 287(g) program to target immigrants and persons of color.”
“It is our opinion that no amount of reforms, no matter how well-intended, will change this disturbing reality,” the letter states.
CNSNews.com sent inquiries by e-mail and telephone to Reps. Gutierrez and Velazquez to explain how federal immigration law could be better enforced in the United States if the 287(g) is eliminated. The representatives were also asked to comment on the success of the program, which since January 2007 has identified more than 120,000 individuals as “potentially removable aliens,” most of whom are incarcerated in local jails, according to DHS.
As this story went to press, the congressional representatives had not responded. However, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) commented on the Hispanic Caucus’s letter about 287(g), telling CNSNews.com: “This is just another ploy by amnesty advocates to open our borders and stop enforcing the rule of law. This program has been an effective tool in cracking down on illegal immigration and enforcing our laws. We should make it a nationwide effort instead of shutting it down.”
To date, the Memorandum of Agreement had been signed with 66 state and local law enforcement agencies in 23 states, with more than 1,000 officers trained and certified by ICE, according to DHS.
Some Mexican pols are complaining because they're nailing too many illegal Mexicans. Just like the Blacks who complain about too many Black criminals in prison. You try to figure it out. It gives me a headache.
I say “Keep the heat on, ICE.”
sarc/
Nice to see the law being enforced, for once..
What difference does it make? The Demon_RATS are getting ready to sneak amnesty through for 20 - 30 million illegals who are as determined to destroy America as they are . When that happens, it’s all over!
“...The Congressional Hispanic Caucus has asked the Obama administration to “immediately terminate” a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) program that has identified more than 120,000 illegal aliens over the past three years...”
SCREW THEM! ILLEGAL IS ILLEGAL! KICK THE BASTARDS OUT!
Wetback ping for later.
Phoenix has seen a 25 percent decline in the number of crimes during the first five months of 2009 compared to the same time period in 2007 when the economy began to slow.
Violent crime in Phoenix is down 12 percent, according crime statistics from the Phoenix Police Department.
The Mesa Police Department reports a 19 percent decrease in total crimes for the first half of 2009 versus the first half of 2007, including a 10 percent drop in violent crime. Tempe has seen a 25 percent total drop.
At the same time, the state’s illegal immigrant population has decreased by as much as one-third thanks to the down U.S. economy, tougher enforcement polices by the federal government and Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, as well as the state’s employer sanctions law which goes after businesses who hire undocumented workers, said Steven Camarota, director of the Center for Immigration Studies.
CIS estimates Arizona’s illegal immigrant population has gone from 579,000 in 2007 to 388,000 this year—191,000-person drop
http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2009/08/drop_in_crime_c.php
(What this means is that Napolitano is about as usesless as that phony president.)
Do you realize that even saying that could be construed as racist?
10 percent official rate of unemployment, perhaps 20 percent unfofficial, I say we can no longer tolerate this treasonous behavior.
I was thinking that crime is down in Arizona because Napolitano left the state, LOL.
E-Verify works, and the Chamber Of Commerce is against it ! Makes ya wonder doesn’t it.
Americans have just got to get informed and CONTACT their representatives!
congress.org is a way to do that.
NumbersUSA.com is a way to send illegal alien info, (opposition) to your representatives....lots of other organizations.
If you want to keep America’s sovereignty...
Just go back where you came from. That will simplify things.
IF we let it happen - not only do we have to keep the pressure on the bludogs, but on the leftists in rino clothing like mclame, grahamnesty, etc.
NumbersUSA has been effective and can still be if we use and support them.
It’s ours to lose - a defeatist or defeated mentality only makes the loss of YOUR rights and property more likely.
I think the Hispanic Caucus needs to go back to Mexico and clean it up.
It’s time to put these people on the spot and ask where do their loyalties lie, to the citizens of this country or to their ethnic group.
Maybe we can get these 100,000 illegals to give a lecture on “what it’s like to work for a living” to our inner city welfare recipients before they depart.
“It’s time to put these people on the spot and ask where do their loyalties lie, to the citizens of this country or to their ethnic group.”
Good point that is where Reagan was great he would embarrass then on national TV.
then = them
Yup! ;o)
Hopefully they’ll take the muslims with them.
Hispanic “community leaders” and “advocacy groups” care more about their ethnicity (or “The Race” in the case of La Raza) than they do about the laws, customs, and borders of the United States.
So, of course, a racially/ethnically pure suprermacist group like the Congressional Hispanic Caucus would advocate for placing those of their kind above the law ...
1/ From personal experience, the immigrants are by and large, hard workers; it’s the children who turn into bums and troublemakers.
2/ Agreed that “We will go down in history as Nation that committed suicide with complacency and political correctness”.
Why aren’t these Congressmen being impeached from office for refusing to support the laws of the land?
Well, Pedro, as soon as Swedish, Latvian, or Martian illegal immigrants flood our Emergency Rooms, overrun our schools, and overwhelm our Social Service infrastructure we'll round their asses up, too. Until then, Hose-A, Hose-B, Hosefina, and the rest of you border jumping Guacamolean CRIMINALS are IT.
That would be great.
True but I was referring to his method of dealing with people in the house thru embarrassment also look at Carter's role in this.
And yet half of Hispanic-surnamed Americans classify themselves as "white." Hispanic is neither a race nor a color.
This successful ICE program targeted "communities of illegality," not "communities of color."
>A program that identifies illegals should be shut down because it’s working?
I’d tell them “Though-shit, if they didn’t want to get punished then they shouldn’t have broken the law.”
>Why aren’t these Congressmen being impeached from office for refusing to support the laws of the land?
Probably because, realistically speaking, only violent removal of these people would work. Consider:
Tim Geithner: Tax fraud, no punishment.
Charles Rangle: Tax Evasion, Fraud, no punishment.
John Murtha: Traitor, Corruption/Graft, no punishment.
Ted Kennedy: Murder, negligent homicide, or manslaughter, no punishment.
Barney Frank: A prostitution business was being run from his domicile, no punishment.
And this is by no means a complete list of what even these people have done.
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