Frontline Law Enforcement Officer Criticizes New 287(g) Agreements
Last week, a law enforcement officer on the front line of protecting his community expressed concern over the Obama Administration's changes to the highly successful 287(g) program — the program that trains state and local law enforcement agencies in the enforcement of federal immigration laws. (The Charlotte Observer, July 22, 2009).
The comments were made by Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Sheriff Chipp Bailey following an announcement by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano that DHS was dramatically changing the rules of the 287(g) program to focus solely on dangerous criminal aliens, taking away much needed flexibility from state and local law enforcement. (See FAIR's Legislative [Update], July 13, 2009). In an interview with The Charlotte Observer, Sheriff Bailey suggested that the new rules, which would be outlined in a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between DHS and the law enforcement agency, were too restrictive. Sheriff Bailey also indicated that: ""If there is no room for negotiation, and no way to change it, I won't sign it."" The Sheriff noted that he was also concerned with new language in the MOA dealing with ""possible changes related to training, reimbursements for holding federal inmates and transportation.""
According to The Observer, the Sherriff was ""concerned federal officials were pushing an agreement that would be too restrictive for local adjustment,"" and that ""he'd be surprised if most agencies signed the agreement as it's written."" This would be a major blow to immigration enforcement efforts and would reduce local communities' ability to effectively fight crime by removing criminal aliens from the streets. More than 7,000 illegal aliens brought to the Mecklenburg County jail have been placed into removal proceedings since Sheriff Bailey's office enrolled in 287(g) three years ago. Sheriff Bailey did, however, express optimism that he would be able to reach some compromise with DHS. (The Charlotte Observer, July 22, 2009).
At the time of Napolitano's announcement, FAIR expressed concerns that the DHS proposal amounted to a top-down, one-size-fits-all, Washington-knows-best approach to local law enforcement, and that this approach of limiting the scope of 287(g) agreements to only dangerous criminal aliens would effectively halt a local government's ability to enforce our immigration laws before crimes are committed. (FAIR's Legislative [Update], July 13, 2009; See also, DHS Press Release, July 10, 2009). This approach was also recently criticized by House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-TX) — the author of the 1996 legislation that created the 287(g) program. Noting that the program was actually intended to allow state and local law enforcement agencies the flexibility to determine which aliens they would prioritize for removal, Rep. Smith stated: ""The goal was to really enable those local law enforcement authorities who wanted to enforce the immigration laws in whatever way they thought best, and that might or might not include those who have committed serious crimes. Some people…are under the mistaken impression that somehow that's required by the legislation, and that's really a decision made by the government in individual situations."" (House Homeland Security Committee Hearing, March 4, 2009).
http://www.fairus.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=21085&security=1601&news_iv_ctrl=1721#3
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