The Department of Homeland Security has announced that it will no longer train local law enforcement to check the immigration status of those they arrest, identifying illegal aliens for detention and deportation.
The program, known as 287(g) allows police to investigate a suspect’s immigration status after an arrest had been made for any offense and has been highly effective in identifying criminal aliens at the local level.
In 2009, Wake County (NC) Sheriff Donnie Harrison told The Wall Street Journal: “I think the program is working great. If the highway patrol brings someone to our jail, and they say they are foreign born, then they are flagged for 287g. They have committed a violation of some sort to be brought to our jail...from broken tail lights to murder and rape.”
Since 2006, more than 1,000 law-enforcement officers have been trained and certified by the federal program. At its height, 77 local police departments participated in 287(g). Both Virginia and North Carolina led the country in the number of local departments participating.
During Fiscal Year 2008, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement deported 356,739 illegal aliens from the U.S., which represented a 23.5 percent increase over the previous year.
However, the program has been steadily weakened under Obama and since August 2010, not one local department has been trained by the feds in 287(g).
In July 2009, DHS announced that local police officers would only be allowed to investigate a suspect’s immigration status when a “serious” crime had been committed.
Unfortunately, we see far too many instances of illegal aliens repeatedly committing crimes such as drunk driving and child molestation, before they are taken of the streets.
Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies recently told USAToday that DHS is “putting politics ahead of public safety.”
Vaughan said: “The problem for ICE is that while they may feel that they get political brownie points for this kind of gesture, in reality what the anti-enforcement groups want is for them to end 287(g) and Secure Communities, not curtail (them). So it's futile — they end up making everyone on both sides angry.”
Almost immediately upon taking office, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano ordered a review of the 287(g) program. Perhaps, the program was seen as a little too effective by Napolitano, who as Governor of Arizona, was often criticized for her lack of enforcement when it came to illegal immigration.
In her short time as head of the Homeland Security Department, she has refused much-needed funds for her department, leveled unfounded accusations at veterans and conservatives by labeling them as potential terrorists, stopped worksite enforcement, refused Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s desperate request for troops along his state’s border, and is now ending a strong program to deal with this country’s enormous illegal alien population.
It is hard to imagine why the Secretary of Homeland Security, who is charged with defending this nation, would end a program which very effectively and efficiently removed huge numbers of illegal aliens from this country. That is unless Madame Secretary has another agenda….An agenda which directly conflicts with the interests of the American people.
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