Vol. 73/No. 44      November 16, 2009

The federal government’s immigration agency spent $54.1 million in the 2009 fiscal year, an increase of $14.4 million from last year. The agency is requesting $68.1 million for 2010.

A 1996 immigration bill established the legal precedent for granting immigration enforcement powers to police officers. However, the first cop agencies did not sign on until 2002, after the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

The program mushroomed as the clouds of a brewing economic storm became clearly visible in 2007. That year the number of participating local agencies grew from seven to 33; by the end of 2008 there were 67. By October this year the total had reached 77.

However, the number of participating agencies is now in flux as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is working to secure agreements with revised language purportedly to establish new “standards” and federal “oversight.”

Sixty-seven cop agencies, as of October 28, had signed on under the new agreement and six others are in negotiations.

Hundreds of organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), NAACP, Episcopal Church, and the Anti-Defamation League sent a letter to President Barack Obama in August demanding the immediate termination of the program.

The ACLU Foundation of Georgia released a report in October that accuses police in Cobb County of “rampant racial profiling” and “committing egregious Constitutional and human rights violations.”

Residents who appear to be foreign-born, the report said, are “routinely picked up by the police for minor or non-existent violations.” Nearly 70 percent of those arrested last year were stopped for traffic violations, such as driving without a license or insurance.

The report is critical of what it calls “minor changes” made by the DHS in July that make “no serious attempt at discouraging racial profiling.” It describes the language in the new agreements as basically cosmetic.

Most importantly the report points out that the changes grant greater police powers to execute search and arrest warrants and “further shield the program from public scrutiny by declaring that documents related to 287(g) are no longer public records.”  
 
Gov’t curbs Arizona county powers
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in Arizona is the most notorious cop agency endowed with immigration powers. Last year cops there turned over to immigration authorities more than 13,000 immigrants, 30 percent of the nationwide total, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement figures.

County Sheriff Joseph Arpaio drew nationwide attention and protests in February after he paraded more than 200 Latino prisoners through the streets of Phoenix in shackles and prison stripes from the jailhouse to a tent prison in the desert.

In a move that indicates the federal government may view Arpaio’s sensational approach as counterproductive, the DHS informed him in early October that it was revoking his agency’s powers to arrest people off the street on suspicion of immigration violations, restricting the county’s official powers to checking the status of those arrested on other charges.

About 45,000 of the 220,000 people “identified” as “illegal” immigrants in U.S. jails and prisons last year were a result of the 287(g) program; the majority were actually a result of a growing use of routine checks.

Six agencies have declined to continue the controversial 287(g) program. Officials at the Houston Police Department, one of those bowing out of 287(g), have announced that their agency will soon join the Department of Homeland Security’s one-year-old “Secure Communities” program.

This program provides cops and prison officials with access to a massive fingerprint database, allowing them to check the immigration status and arrest history of anyone in police custody, on probation, or on parole. A database of everyone caught up in the “criminal justice” system provides one way for the government and cop agencies to accomplish the same end with less controversy.

The DHS intends to deploy the system and procedures in all 30,000 local jails and booking locations by 2013.  
 
 
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