Monday, February 20, 2012
Phillips / Immigration / Law and Order Is the Controversial 287(g) Program Coming to an End?
Posted by Betsy Phillips on Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 7:49 AM
T.S. Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men" famously concludes, "This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang, but a whimper." Judging by media reports across the country, it appears that the federal government's agreement with local law enforcement that lets some immigration enforcement take place at a local level may also be concluding with a whimper.
Back on Feb. 8, the online Maryland community news site Gazette.com quoted Frederick County Sheriff Charles Jenkins on whether the controversial 287(g) program was being "softened" at the federal level:
“This is nothing more than national politics at work, a lot of smoke and mirrors,” Jenkins said. “[President Barack] Obama is pandering to the Latino community. I don’t think there will be wholesale change, and I don’t think [287(g)] will go away.”
But on Monday, Feb. 13, word spread in the immigration community that 287(g) was fading away. According to these reports, no new task force agreements will be made, the least effective agreements will end, and the rest of the agreements will be phased out and replaced by the new "Secure Communities" program.
If that's so, the response has been fairly muted. The Houston Chronicle had a story this week that Sheriff Adrian Garcia in Texas' Harris County is leading a "national fight to save 287(g) funding." If any other law enforcement official is joining in his fight, the effort hasn't made the news.
Then came this story over the weekend in USA Today:
Now, in their proposed budget for the upcoming year, Department of Homeland Security officials say they will not sign new contracts for 287(g) officers working in the field and will terminate the "least productive" of those agreements — saving an estimated $17 million. All the contracts between ICE and local police agencies run for three years, so that portion of the program could be finished by November when the last contract for field officers expires.
There are a couple of things that might explain the lack of public outcry. One, 287(g) has been extremely unpopular in the Latino community. People would rather not report crimes than risk that they or their loved ones come under increased scrutiny by the police. In spite of constant reassurances that no one immigrant community is being targeted, few have failed to notice that, even in cities with large non-Hispanic illegal immigrant communities, people aren't being arrested and sent back to Europe or Asia in any meaningful numbers.
Two, communities who think they need 287(g) can't always get it, while "Secure Communities" is already in the process of being implemented nationwide. I think most people would rather see a comprehensive program rather than one that is implemented in only a few towns.
I've heard nothing about any plans for Nashville's program to end. But if the USA Today story is accurate, that could happen in November. Considering the lawsuits and the inadvertent talks to white supremacist groups about how awesome the program is and the shackling of a pregnant woman during labor, one wonders if Nashville might not be relieved to see this ending with a whimper.
Comments (5)
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Why should law enforcement officers risk their lives by trying to enforce laws that our elected officials are undermining at every turn, in every way? I know I don't want the police officers in my family, the ones still active and not retired, to have to put up with this unfair situation. That situation, that added danger, is massive and is caused by U.S. immigration policies (unenforced and unfunded laws, and presidential executive orders and sleights of hand that undermine our laws and fool the American people), and by state laws and policies (or lack of same) that make states magnets for illegal migration. The result is deliberate mass, uncontrolled immigration, much of it illegal, that has made our law enforcement officers' jobs more dangerous, and our children's futures a coming crowded nightmare of national fragmentation.
Meanwhile, the only way the illegal alien who injured my daughter and skipped probably could or would be picked up is via local and state police officers enforcing our laws, including immigration laws, which all U.S. law enforcement officers have the federal authority to enforce, according to court decisions. We have no idea where this illegal driver is, because illegal aliens are untraceable in this country. My daughter is a victim of U.S. immigration policy. And, frankly, no one but us and others like us really give a flip.
Our best windows of opportunity to stop this crazy train have passed. This situation has moved to another level.
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Donna,
Three things.
First, I'm very sorry to hear about the injury to your daughter. I hope she's okay. Injuries are traumatic things, and all the more traumatic when we don't get to hold the people responsible for them accountable.
Second, doesn't your concern about not being able to identify people and locate them counsel more strongly in favor of granting driver's licenses to people regardless of immigration status? That way, at least we get their fingerprints and some additional information about them into a database on the front end so that your daughter isn't left without justice on the back end? You'd probably respond that giving people driver's licenses regardless of their immigration status rewards people who break the law. But hasn't this guy who injured your daughter already been rewarded by us not knowing who he is? Don't we want his fingerprints?
Third, you state unequivocally that "all U.S. law enforcement officers have the federal authority to enforce [immigration laws], according to court decisions." Surely you've read decisions of federal courts in Georgia, South Carolina, Indiana, Arizona, and the 9th Circuit, all of which hold there is no such inherent authority. If not, surely you're familiar with the 6th Circuit's case law, which recognizes that absent specific authorization from the feds or federal law, state and local police can't arrest people for completed violations of civil immigration law.
But even if you haven't read and comprehended all of these things which flatly contradict your view, surely you must recognize the fundamental cognitive dissonance in your position: If all U.S law enforcement officers have the power to enforce federal immigration laws, then it shouldn't matter what feds do, should it? Nobody needs a 287(g) agreement to do immigration law enforcement if everyone has the power to do immigration law enforcement, right? These phase-outs of 287(g) wouldn't matter if what you were saying about state and local law enforcement powers had any basis in reality, would they?
Yours in Solidarity,
Sish
Donna did not say the illegal was released from the scene, I would bet he was arrested then released like is the case with most vehicular assaults not involving deaths. It sounds like they know who the driver is, they just can't find him. Being issued a drivers license does not make someone easier to find once the run away. It takes a federal court judge ruling to apparently allow states to look at the licenses they issue before allowing people to vote. Is a TN license going to stop a drunken alien from crossing back to where he came?
Seriousish:
The authority of state police to make arrests for violations of federal law is established. And not just for situations in which law enforcement officers have specifically delegated authority. State and local officers have inherent authority to carry out the laws of the land.
The United States Supreme Court has decided to weigh in on state and local enforcement of federal immigration laws. In progress right now.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/12/ne…
Driver's licenses and any government-issued documents are gateway documents for illegal aliens. You do recall the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and how they were facilitated, do you not?
Aside from the people directly out to kill us, there are many, many problems with issuing driver's licenses or any gateway documents to illegal aliens. I have gone into those problems at length many times.
The aim of the open-borders lobby is no immigration enforcement at all. Keep that in mind.
The United States has outgrown mass immigration. Immigration, legal and illegal, has become a welfare program of huge current and looming costs.
The future we now face was not inevitable. It has been orchestrated by the actions and inactions of human beings.
This administration would sell all remaining original copies of our Constitution
for a few dollars to aide the Re-election effort, so why be surprised at anything
they might do for a few more votes between now and Nov! Homeland Security
is now one of the most bloated departments within our system with the
ability to do absolutely nothing right or with any efficiency!
