Posted on 04/24/2005 10:42:44 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
SANTA ANA, Calif. - Frustrated by illegal immigrant criminals who slip their grasp, a growing number of state and county police agencies nationwide are moving to join a federal program that enlists local officers to enforce immigration laws.
The federal government has already granted that authority in Florida and Alabama, and the program is under consideration in Connecticut, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
It's also in the works in Southern California - one of the nation's most ethnically diverse regions - where it would reverse a long-standing local police policy of avoiding questions about immigration status during criminal investigations.
Immigrant rights groups insist the move will discourage people from reporting domestic violence or other crimes for fear of deportation, and that it would lead to racial profiling and other abuses.
"We're 100 percent against it," said Amin David, president of Los Amigos of Orange County. "It will have a chilling effect on our community."
Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona is proposing the largest use of the program in the country. He wants to train as many as 500 deputies to catch illegal immigrants who have had criminal convictions.
Under the plan, officers would only check the status of people already in jail or under investigation for serious crimes.
"We're just taking advantage of another law enforcement tool to take bad guys off the street," Carona said.
The proposal drew overwhelming opposition when Carona presented it last week to leaders of community groups.
"If he embarks on this, we fear it will spread to other local agencies and then we'll have chaos," David said.
In neighboring Los Angeles County, the sheriff's department already has approval to train seven civilian employees this summer for a six-month pilot program to identify jail inmates who are eligible for deportation.
About 30 percent of the 18,000 inmates in Los Angeles County custody are foreign-born, but only two federal agents are assigned to determine who should be deported. Meanwhile, overcrowding has forced the county to release 200,000 inmates in the past three years before their sentences were completed.
"Our goal is to get them off the street and out of the country so local resources aren't spent on these individuals," said sheriff's Lt. Margarito Robles.
An estimated 465,000 people in this country have gone into hiding after receiving deportation orders, including as many as 85,000 immigrants who have been convicted of a crime, said Manny Van Pelt, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The agency, however, has only 4,000 detention and removal officers and 6,000 special agents to find them and handle other crimes.
"Even if we doubled the number of ICE agents, there wouldn't be enough," said Kris Kobach, a law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City who helped set up the program in Alabama while serving as counsel to former Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Using local authorities to enforce immigration law has been allowed since 1996, when it was included as part of a broad immigration bill. But no local agencies participated until 2002, when 35 state and local officers in Florida completed the training and were authorized to take action on immigration violations in domestic terrorism investigations.
Alabama trained its first 21 officers in 2003 to deal with what officials called a lack of attention by the federal government to illegal immigration in that state.
State troopers have used the expanded enforcement powers to arrest more than 100 people, including a Mexican man captured during a traffic stop who was wanted for murder in his country and a Nigerian woman using a fraudulent passport to get a driver's license, said Haran Lowe, a lawyer for the state Department of Public Safety.
In Danbury, Conn., Mayor Mark Boughton recently urged his state to join the effort, citing the strain on government services caused by the growing illegal immigrant population in the New York City suburb.
"The federal government has an inability to do its job as it relates to immigration," Boughton said. "The fact of the matter is that this is out of control."
My great grandmother used to talk about calling out the local militia for all sorts of natural disasters and other events. People used to be able to care for themselves.
If our political leaders did something about deporting the illegals and closing the border, I have a feeling that there would be a mass migration from Utah, Idaho, Nevada, and Oregon back to Southern California. Everybody that's been chased out over the past 20 years might be very tempted to return.
And, with the influx of patriotic conservatives, we might be able to elect a real Republican as governor, again.
When it comes down to it, solving the border problem would do so much for our country. That's why it's so dangerous to our party if we cede this issue to some opportunistic Democrat or third-party candidate.
Much gentler measures would do the job. What about making employers liable for underpaying the illegal workers and for the school/medical costs?
One could make the just amnesty - you report to the immigration and you get the green card plus nice compensation and bonus with employer reimbursing the state?
The illegal immigration would stop even faster!
Because the Mexican government make it so difficult to start a LEGAL business. Permits of all kinds needed, with graft and bribes demanded for each permit. For all practical purposes, property rights don't exist, except for those rich enough to hire their own private army. Mexico is a socialist state, and private businesses really aren't wanted.
Make employers to foot the bill and reward whistleblowers. Give amnesty/green card plus compensation for underpaid wages to the illegal workers who come forward.
Last night, on either side of my house, there were two competing parties both with the requisite pinatas, lots of booze and LOUD music. I finally called the cops.
Now I'm left waiting to see if there will be any retaliation for my actions. Perhaps another graffiti job on the front of my place.
Yeah I knew that I just didn't want to give the scum bags the dignity of a name. In my opionion there should be a bounty on their tattooed heads!!! Hell if it was five bucks and legitimate I would collect a few.
Sounds like a great idea. However, the employers have enough money from paying the substandard wages to the migrant workers that the lawyers that they hire would ensure that all of the twists and turns in the laws that we see now would tie up the court system even further.
RICO laws could be applied - they would pay first all costs and then hire lawyers to recover something. If RICO is good against pro-life protests, why not to use it to protect illegal workers from exploitation?
Local police agencies moving to enforce crime laws.
The article title implies that immigration law will be enforced by local authorities. The article is about enforcement in regards to crime committed by illegals.
Bump!
It is against the Law for anyone (for whatever reason) to enter into this Nation without the approval of the United States Government...and only at specific spots.
..and yet you seem to not care that the Law is broken...only that you will not have to clean your own toilet.
Why???
redrock
And help bust budgets via privatized profits and socialized costs. If they created wealth why didn't they do it Mexico?
Amen brother.
Your next step might be federal civil rights if they let slip one gringo or los negros comment your way.
A few years back now, a guy approached me on my street. He said he was "visiting" from Venezuela. You bet! Turns out he wanted to chat me up about the changes in my once-nice neighborhood. He said he'd been here 10 years earlier and it was all American. Then he said "Now you can't find an American!" I pointed out that he just found one, and he feigned surprise that I lived in the area. Arrogant. little. banty. rooster.
I'm in Los Angeles and the L.A.P.D. told me that something racist has to be there before they would even consider going out to look at some piece of "multicultural art work".
You can go to the station and file a vandalism report, but they said that report just becomes "one more piece of paper". And just to add insult to injury, it is the responsibility of the property owner to promptly remove/paint over any graffiti or they can be fined.
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Be Ever Vigilant!
Minutemen Patriots ~ Bump!
machismo: a rooster who is all feathers and no cock-a-doodle-do.
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