In less than one month, the Alamance County Sheriff's Department made the news twice because of that county's participation in Washington's "287(g)" program. First, three children were left in a car on the side of a highway at night with an unrelated man after a deputy sheriff took the mother into custody on the charges of driving without a license in a car with an improper license plate. Second, a library worker was arrested for misusing a Social Security number. She has lived in the United States since she was 3 and has a young child.
The 287(g) program permits designated state and local law enforcement officers to perform immigration law enforcement functions. It was created in 1996 but not used until 2002. The 287(g) bandwagon gathered steam in light of Washington's inability to address our insecure borders. The question is whether it is sound public policy to expend the limited resources of our local police to enforce federal regulatory law. We should encourage our police to get back to their mission of making our streets safer and demand that Congress pass true immigration reform.
The two Alamance County stories illustrate the abuses arising from local law enforcement of federal law.
* It jeopardizes public safety. Implementation of 287(g) might make us feel more secure, but it does not actually make us safer.
First, it breaks down trust between the police and the immigrant community. Criminal prosecution relies on cooperation from victims and witnesses. Immigrants rightfully fear that the police only want to help deport them. Therefore, they rely less on police. Crimes go unreported. Witnesses of crime refuse to come forward. This affects both the citizen and noncitizen community because it makes criminal prosecution harder. It drives the immigrant community further into the shadows.
More importantly, it detracts focus away from fighting real crime. Politicians continue to perpetuate the myth that immigrants pose a criminal threat to the community. Yet, reality paints a different picture. A study released last year by the University of California-Irvine showed that, nationally, immigrants were five times less likely to be in prison than native-born Americans.
Politicians sell 287(g) as a way to get dangerous criminals out of the country, but they enforce it against ordinary people. They lump everyone from rapists to visa overstays under one banner: illegal. For example, according to published reports, the librarian, Marxavi Angel-Martinez, entered the United States with her parents on a temporary work visa and never left. It is not a crime to enter the United States on a temporary visa and overstay. Thirty-five to 45 percent of "illegal aliens" consist of visa overstays who have committed no crime at all. The vast majority of the remaining "illegal" population is guilty of one misdemeanor: entering the United States without inspection.
* The implementation of 287(g) in Alamance County illustrates misplaced priorities.
In a forum earlier this year, Sheriff Terry Johnson's statistics showed that almost 60 percent of the 287(g) arrests were for non-drunk driving traffic offenses and nonviolent misdemeanors. Many times, the offender is simply turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and any traffic or criminal case is dismissed. While Alamance County chases down library workers and day laborers, real criminals remain in our local communities.
* It's window-dressing. We need real reform.
About 12 million aliens are in the United States without authorization. ICE deported 236,378 people or about 2 percent of the "illegal alien" population in 2007. At the same time, 200,000-400,000 entered the United States without inspection. An enforcement-only approach does not work because the government is enforcing a flawed set of laws.
Despite the perception that illegal aliens could come here legally if they chose to, under the current system there is no "line" for the vast majority of them. Most don't have the family relationships or work in professions that qualify for a green card. Even those who qualify can't obtain a card because the law penalizes them for going home to apply.
Until there are avenues to legally immigrate, illegal immigration will fill the gap. Rather than continuing the illusion of enforcement through programs such as 287(g), Washington needs to pass meaningful immigration reform.
Jeremy McKinney is an immigration law specialist in Greensboro.
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