Posted on 09/05/2006 6:54:49 AM PDT by NewRomeTacitus
After a recent spate of violent crimes allegedly committed by illegal or suspected illegal immigrants, Nashville has asked to become one of five American cities empowered to deport its own criminal illegal immigrants.
On Aug. 15, Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall — with the full support of Metro Chief of Police Ronal Serpas and District Attorney Torry Johnson — filed paperwork to take part in a little-known federal government initiative called the Delegation of Authority Program or section 287 (g) of the Immigration and Naturalization Act.
The 287 (g) program gives local law enforcement agencies the “training and subsequent authorization to identify, process and, when appropriate, detain immigration offenders they encounter during their regular, daily law-enforcement activity,” according to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security fact sheet.
Local implementation of 287 (g) would not authorize the police or sheriff’s deputies to conduct active sweeps of suspected immigrants, nor would it allow any Metro agency to deport aliens who happen to be identified as illegal.
What it would do, according to Hall and others familiar with the program, is allow Sheriff’s Office personnel to screen anyone who is arrested and placed in jail, and who is suspected of being an illegal immigrant, to determine if those persons previously have been deported or are otherwise subject to any federal immigration enforcement action.
Presently, sheriff’s deputies must feed information on arrested suspected illegal immigrants to a federal database in Vermont and wait for an answer that may or may not come.
After the Aug. 22 arrest of Ivan Moreno, a suspected illegal immigrant charged with beating his 74-year-old Bellevue neighbor to death, Hall, Serpas and Johnson acknowledged the three had been holding a series of meetings to discuss how to change the way criminal illegal immigrants are handled in Nashville.
What came out of those meetings was a plan to enter Davidson County into the 287 (g) program as soon as possible.
Mt. Juliet incident kicks off meetings
Hall said the discussions between Davidson County’s top three law enforcement officials began in earnest immediately after the June 8 vehicular homicide of a Mt. Juliet couple, allegedly at the hands of Gustavo Reyes Garcia, an illegal immigrant who had been arrested by Metro Police 17 times since 1997 but who served a total of only 168 days in jail.
“Certainly, Garcia brought to light some gaps in what I feel like is the federal government’s responsibility to keep criminal illegals off the street,” Hall said.
Meetings between Hall, Serpas and Johnson, along with federal immigration officials and officials in Gov. Phil Bredesen’s office, eventually pointed Metro to 287 (g)’s implementation in Los Angeles County, Calif.
“I’m pleased to see that Davidson County is taking steps to deal with criminal illegal immigrants in a more effective way,” Bredesen said in a statement. “At the state level, we will also continue to pursue fair and reasonable solutions to the issues caused by the influx of illegal immigrants into the United States.”
As of today, only the counties encompassing the cities of Los Angeles, Phoenix and Charlotte have turned to 287 (g). Hall said there is a fourth city ahead of Nashville in the process of obtaining permission to start the program.
Metro officials said they have secured the assistance of U.S. Rep Jim Cooper in streamlining the approval process.
Hall shoots for March implementation
Hall said he hopes to have 287 (g) up and running in his jail by March.
“Our system has inherent flaws in it because it doesn’t provide us the information we need,” Hall continued. “Garcia was a deportee. He should have been deported any time he had been arrested… But I’m just as worried, if not more worried, about the four [suspected illegal immigrants] we let out last night.”
Through 287 (g), if a criminal in the system is found to be an illegal alien, local law enforcement officials — who will receive special training from the federal government at no cost to Metro — will begin deportation work immediately.
Those who are suspected of being illegal aliens will have to appear before a federal immigration judge and prove their legal status.
In Charlotte, 287 (g) has been a huge success, Hall and officials there said. And it was the experience of Charlotte — not Los Angeles or Phoenix — that sold Metro officials on the program’s potential.
Charlotte’s program sees success
Julia Rush, a spokeswoman for the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s office, said that since May 1, when their program began, officials have begun removal proceedings for 474 — 30 percent — of the 1,080 individuals who were brought into jail and who were not born in the United States.
“We started finding out immediately that we had a very large number of people in the system illegally,” Rush said. “It was a huge number that had some issue that would cause them to be deported.”
In contrast, of the 4,200 foreign-born arrestees that came through Metro jail last year, the federal government placed immigration holds on only 151 — 3.6 percent — of them, according to Hall’s office.
Rush said the Charlotte community has been tremendously supportive of their efforts.
“Even the Latino community,” she said. “The Latino community has said, ‘Well, we don’t want them in our neighborhoods committing crimes either.’”
Hall said he has already begun community outreach here.
“It was the responsible thing for us to look into,” Hall said. “Now we need to push the folks in Washington to implement the program for us.”
Cops plan ID checks of jailed immigrants
Tapping federal database could flag illegals, aid in deportation
BTTT
This program soon to be nixed in a court near you.
...
And certainly opposed by ultra liberal Vanderbilt University.
Year before last I had occassion to visit several Nashville businesses. They were Arab run, mostly Palestinian and staffed by mostly Mexicans. There was one Hispanic who spoke good English and may have been legal. The others I'm sure were not.
It was a very strange place..... if you didn't speak Arabic or Spanish you were out of luck.
One of the businesses was run by an old Saudi very recently here. His receptionist was a Nashville black girl covered from head to toe.....except eyes and fingers with a burka. The Saudi employed an old Mexican who was locked in a building with fenced in grounds partolled by a monstorus rotweiller.
Hope the sheriff pays them a visit.
Nashville hooray.
Time for state and local governments to take immigration matters into their own hands.
bump. The idea that the feds can fix this in a sanctuary city atmosphere is expecting too much.
Whatever, illegal aliens should be rounded up and deported. What an outrage to have a drug dealer given perks to testify against Border Patrol who tried to apprehend him.
Now, if we can keep illegals from paving their front yards for parking, real progress can ensue.
I mean, just because someone came here ignoring our immigration laws, works under the table illegally, drives to work without a license, without insurance, registration, in a car that's probably paid for on a defaulted loan bought with a stolen identity, doesn't pay taxes, and helps themselves to any social program they're not entitled to... that doesn't mean that they're more likely to to commit a crime than an American Citizen.
Owl_Eagle
If what I just wrote made you sad or angry,
it was probably just a joke.
So much for the claims of many that state and local governments have no authority to enforce immigration law.
BTTT
Please help me out. Is the program limited to a total of five cities nation wide or are only five cities currently involved in the program?
ping
More proof that those who say we can't send 12M illegals back to where they came from, are wrong. We can do it, one city/county at a time.
Isn't "criminal ILLEGAL immigrants" redundant? And here I always thought that "illegal" was usually the same thing as "criminal". :\
The headline should actually read something like this: "City (Nashville) looks to deport ARRESTED illegal immigrants" or preferable but highly unlikely "arrested illegal alien invading trespassers". :)-
dirtboy, Yeah, right now my cousin says there is a Sheriff in WV that is being harassed by the ACLU b/c he keeps holding illegal alien invading trespassers for pick-up by ICE. Now it's a small cnty & probably doesn't have the resources/time to actually deport illegals but if they are allowed to do that then they most certainly are allowed to hold them for pick-up by ICE.
WVNan, To me whether or not we can actually "send back" ALL 12+ million or not is NOT the point. Even if it can't be done in totality there is no reason whatsoever that we shouldn't or can't @ least deport as many as we actually get a hold of.
BTW, I guess Nashville isn't a "sanctuary" city. :)
“the June 8 vehicular homicide of a Mt. Juliet couple, allegedly at the hands of Gustavo Reyes Garcia, an illegal immigrant who had been arrested by Metro Police 17 times since 1997 but who served a total of only 168 days in jail”
They had to go to Mexico to arrest this guy In April he got 25 years but will only have to serve 7 1/2 ...
The Tennessean said he might be deported after that...
“Bredesen said in a statement. “At the state level, we will also continue to pursue fair and reasonable solutions to the issues caused by the influx of illegal immigrants into the United States”
The TN Gov is a liar...2 times last year he vetoed strong laws passed by our TN legislature..one was like GA’s new one and the other much the same...
He said it was not his responsibility...but the Fed Govt...
I’m impressed with your response to such an aged post.
Bredesen only wields clout because he follows the stint of a consummate RINO who made it easy for a mindful Democrat to appear conservative.
I’ve only recently learned that alien criminal pond scum all over the nation have gotten deportation rather than the hard-time sentences they deserved...only to cross the border later purporting more crimes. This is due to our Federal government functionaries willing to do anything other than their plainly written duty.
I say that, when the higher authority refuses to do what’s right, responsibility devolves to local authority. One doesn’t wait around for the fire department to save one’s home while fire extinguishers are at hand.
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