Posted on 07/29/2008 8:08:26 AM PDT by Clint N. Suhks
BAY COUNTY - Local deputies now are acting as immigration agents and will be able to deport illegal aliens from Bay County.
Deputy Richard Bagwell and Sgt. John Sumerall, both of the Bay County Sheriff's Office, have graduated from the 287 (g) Program in Charleston, S.C., Sheriff's Office officials said last week. The four-week school was created by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and is named after a section of law under the Immigration and Nationality Act that authorizes the federal government to train local officers to enforce immigration laws.
The Bay County Sheriff's Office has a task force that responds to complaints about illegal aliens at construction sites and other areas. The deputies often find and arrest illegal aliens using someone else's Social Security number.
Bagwell said the new authority will prevent a frequent problem. Until now after locals arrested illegal immigrants, they had to wait for ICE officers to come to town, interview the suspects, and decide on deportation. Often, before the ICE officials arrived, the suspects bonded out of jail and disappeared, Bagwell said.
Instead of deportation, the illegal aliens would move on and use a fake Social Security number somewhere else, officials said. Now, Bagwell and Sumerall can conduct the interviews and order a deportation before an illegal can bond out, Bagwell said.
"You get all these innocent victims," Bagwell said of the illegal immigration problem.
The forged Social Security numbers belong to someone else, usually a juvenile, and when the juvenile goes to work, they find they have problems with the IRS for not paying taxes, Bagwell said. Those taxes are registered with the federal government because someone used their Social Security number, he added.
"The poor kids never had a job before, and now they are starting out in a hole having to straighten out their credit and everything else with the IRS," Bagwell said.
While at the school, the deputies received training in immigration law, multicultural relations and instruction on Homeland Security databases that identify criminals and immigration violators. The Bay County Sheriff's Office is the first sheriff's office in the 14th judicial circuit, which includes Bay and surrounding counties, to send officers to the program.
"The government has told us what we need to do," said Sheriff Frank McKeithen. "We're going to see now if the government is good on their word."
Took some digging...but this story is located in NW FLORIDA. Wouldn’t know it by the title...
about time, it is a start, but, we need to have ALL law enforcement departments able to do that. It only makes sense.
Hopefully, they’ll load them into boats and deport them into international waters.
Sounds like a great development.
As for this part:
The forged Social Security numbers belong to someone else, usually a juvenile, and when the juvenile goes to work, they find they have problems with the IRS for not paying taxes, Bagwell said. Those taxes are registered with the federal government because someone used their Social Security number, he added.
“The poor kids never had a job before, and now they are starting out in a hole having to straighten out their credit and everything else with the IRS,” Bagwell said.
***
I think the way to deal with this would be to apply those SS taxes that were paid in the illegal’s name to the victim’s account.
Yeah, I was trying to figure out what state too. The poster should have listed the state either in the title or under topics.
FLA? I got the impression it was in SC because that is where the school is located. Thanks for clearing that up, as I was wondering about Bay County....
Here’s a dumb foreigner question: don’t you have the powers of Citizen’s Arrest in the United States? And if so, why isn’t the answer to Illegal Aliens just as simple as all of you Citizen’s Arresting them on sight? Isn’t being an Illegal Alien in the US technically a serious crime in and of itself?
(To say nothing of Using a Document Falsely for Pecuniary Advantage, as is the case with stolen Social Security Cards)
And don’t you have the powers of conducting a private Criminal Prosecution?
(If the answers to these questions is “no”, then perhaps you need to use your Second Amendment to get your Gummint to give you these valuable rights back!)
Click the link.
Here's something that most folks don't know. At least in my State, the only real difference between a sworn Police Officer and a 'civilian' is that the Officer can make an arrest for a misdemeanor.
So I suppose if one had evidence of 'Felony Identity Theft', which is a crime in IL, then one could make the arrest.
Some jurisidictions are decidedly unfriendly to those making Citizens Arrests.
Chicago springs to mind...
L
Wish they mandated that here in Merryland.
Sounds like poor reporting to me. Do the deputies actually transport the illegals to the border and push them out of the country? That would be a deputy deporting an illegal alien. More likely they simply arrest them and put them into the system (and then the system lets them back on the street with a promise to appear).
I would assume ICE would make the case that illegals were a flight risk can ask a judge to deny bail. The deputies should have the same authority.
One pet peeve in freeper-land, for me, is posts without location. Some are national/global, but local stories like this need the location in (Your Town, USA) when not contained in the title.
That is a local headline that misleads the reader, the capability has been there since 1996:
The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA), effective September 30, 1996, added Section 287(g), performance of immigration officer functions by state officers and employees, to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). This authorizes the secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to enter into agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies, permitting designated officers to perform immigration law enforcement functions, pursuant to a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), provided that the local law enforcement officers receive appropriate training and function under the supervision of sworn U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
It is just a matter of getting local authorities to agree to get involved in the program.
No offense to ICE as they are seriously undermanned for their job, but it great to see local LEOs being given the tools to capture and deport illegal aliens.
ping
Mupples, I know that you said that you campaigned for Pawlenty. It is long past due that we all lobby for these changes in our state, starting with our sanctuary twin cities.
That's where Bay County is located....hello.
You have a better chance of getting Norm Coleman to support drilling in ANWR.
As usual, Lurker — an excellent answer. Thanks!
> The powers of Citizens Arrest, at least in my State, apply only to State laws which reach the Felony level meaning the offense is punishable by more than one year in prison.
I keep forgetting about that Federal law / State law thing. Here we don’t have that, nor do we have a distinction between “felony” and “misdemeanor”.
The “authorities” here frown on “Citizen’s Arrests” too — but our laws are quite clear: Sections 35-49 of the Crimes Act 1961 deal with Arrest and Use of Force, and long may it be thus!
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