During a Waukegan city council meeting last month, Mayor Richard Hyde listens as Jose Guvman protests 287(g), which would let local police enforce immigration laws. (Andre J. Jackson/STNG file)
Posted on 08/29/2007 10:11:09 AM PDT by MotleyGirl70
Operation Lake County Gang Search 2007 has been under way since Sunday in Waukegan, coming in the wake of last month's major immigration rights rally and the decision by police to apply for special training to deport violent criminals.
"This is not part of 287(g)," Waukegan Police Chief Bill Biang said, referring to the federal enforcement authorization. "It could be as long as two years before we even get that program in place. We do these type of big roundups all the time."
Biang said Tuesday that Waukegan -- along with Libertyville, Mundelein, the Lake County Sheriff's Office and other area police departments -- has 10 officers out looking for 96 known gang members with deportation warrants from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.
"So far we've picked up 55 across Lake County and about 21 in Waukegan alone," said Biang, who emphasized that the criminals are not exclusively illegal immigrants. "We're using ICE's assistance and authority to remove these gang members. Whether they are here legally or not, they are eligible for deportation."
ICE spokeswoman Gail Montenegro confirmed the initiative and said several similar operations, to arrest sex offenders or fugitives, for instance, have routinely been undertaken in Lake County.
Tensions boiled over last month in Waukegan, where the population is over 50 percent Hispanic, when community leaders protested the city council's decision to apply for training from ICE in order to facilitate deportation of convicted violent criminals. Mayor Richard Hyde entered into an agreement with local Hispanic organizations promising not to use the authority for traffic offenders or non-violent criminals.
"We don't do the big roundups everyday, but it shows that if we had the ability to work with the 287(g) process we wouldn't have to do these large roundups and there wouldn't be 96 offenders loose on the street," Biang said.
During a Waukegan city council meeting last month, Mayor Richard Hyde listens as Jose Guvman protests 287(g), which would let local police enforce immigration laws. (Andre J. Jackson/STNG file)
Yep, we’ll deport ‘em, and they’ll come back through the sector run by that guy who says it’s not the BP’s job to arrest illegal immigrants.
I hope they’ll be met by armed Minutemen next time.
They’ll be back within three days, unfortunately.
So this picture is of a guy protesting when law enforcemnt actually enforce laws?
If an American tried that in Mexico, he or she would probably be “disappeared”.
L
I’ll bet the Mayor really appreciated being confronted and threatened in his own City Council Chambers. That guy is entirely too aggressive for my taste and I would have called for a policeman to remove him. Not exactly the way to win friends and influence people there, Jose.
How flippin’ stupid can they be?
You announce you’re going to start deporting illegals, and they all get together in one place for a rally, so you can take their pictures!
Bet it’s a lot easier to single out the illegals up north!
Mayor Barrett (Rat-Milwaukee) hasn't done squat about the illegals and/or crime in certain areas of Milwaukee.
Lake County illegal immigration ping!
But what about.... (sniff) their families?/s
Do you speak Spanish yet?
Thanks for the post. I heard that 55 gang members were deported this week, but I didn’t know that they were caught in my county.
ping
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