Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Around Town / Phillips 287(g) Is Good for Something
Posted by Betsy Phillips on Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 11:52 AM
First we discover that the Sheriff's Department shackled Juana Villegas to her hospital bed while she was in labor, an "isolated incident" that turns out to have been policy--meaning every woman who went into labor while she was jailed was locked down.
Then we learn that Sheriff Daron Hall was willing to speak to the Council of Conservative Citizens about 287(g), an "isolated incident" in which Hall went tromping down to visit with a bunch of self-avowed racists about his great program for ridding our city of brown people. Sheriff Hall, it turns out, will talk to anybody about his beloved program, even the successors to the White Citizens' Councils. (This is not hyperbole, just the easily Google-able history of this organization.)
And now, in another "isolated incident" that should in no way reflect on the overall value of the 287(g) program, we learn that one of the sheriff's deputies hand-picked to work as an ICE agent was, at his second job, working with illegal immigrants.
According to the Channel 4 I-Team story, Sheriff Hall says, "My biggest concern was Mr. Savarino doing anything with his information here to assist his uncle? Is he using equipment or information to assist the individuals who work there?"
To which I say, here's another fine example of the benefit 287(g) has had to this community. Yes, it terrorizes people who have shown the temerity to want to live in our city. Sure, it has consolidated unprecedented power to change the make-up of our community, and placed that power in the hands of one department. And, yeah, it means that we have, in effect, two sets of punishment for people, depending on your status. Properly statused people can get a DUI and suffer a little public embarrassment and maybe some jail time. Meanwhile, people of the wrong status get their families torn apart, their lives destroyed, and deported.
But if there's one lesson we can learn, it's this: These incidents are never isolated. They might be isolated within the 287(g) program, but they're never isolated within the Sheriff's Department.
All women about to give birth were treated like Villagas was treated. Any damn fool group with any damn fool agenda could have asked Sheriff Hall to come speak to it and he would have. So what do you think the chances are that Savarino is the only employee at Sheriff Hall's office who has a second job that benefits from his first?
Thanks to 287(g), we're able to get a good look at how the Sheriff's Department works, across the board.
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