County considers immigration training for jailers; Mayor says no way
The Chronicle's James Pinkerton reports that Harris County Sheriff Tommy Thomas has announced plans for Harris County jailers to receive training from the feds to identify illegal immigrants:
Harris County would be the first law enforcement agency in Texas to receive training from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, joining 34 departments from Florida to California that have undergone the training. Thomas announced Friday that he authorized his department to pursue the program.
The training would give employees the ability to interview inmates more thoroughly about their immigration status and authorize them to detain those in the country illegally.
Seventy departments are on a training waiting list, including four in Texas, but an ICE official would not identify them until formal agreements are signed.
In Phoenix, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said ICE trained 100 deputies and 60 jailers at his county facilities. The officers are not only checking immigration status of jail inmates, but assisting in ICE criminal investigations, the sheriff said.
''Since the cops won't ask where they're from, we ask," said Arpaio, referring to local police who don't check the immigration status of those they arrest. ''We check everybody who comes in, about 300 or 400 a day, and we have determined over 8,000 illegals have been booked into our jail. It's been successful."
Asking the question doesn't seem like that big a deal. And it certainly doesn't seem as ominous or draconian as when fans of sanctuary policies start moaning about not wanting to create a police state and not wanting to devote manpower to doing the work of the federal government.
Speaking of which -- Carolyn Feibel asked Mayor White if similar training might benefit HPD, and the response was predictable:
White said, in essence, no.
"I think it will erode the capacity of local law enforcement if local law enforcement starts assuming more and more federal functions."
Lest residents think nothing is being done in the jail, White explained that the city does use the national fingerprint database to look for matches. And, more than 160 people wanted by federal immigration authorities have been handed over from the city jail since October 2006, White. said.
"I'd rather have our police figure out how to catch people who commit violent crimes, than become immigration lawyers."
The argument that we must ban HPD from asking about immigration status in most circumstances or HPD will not be able to catch people who commit violent crimes (or continue other important work like cracking down on renegade downtown jaywalkers, or more recently, cracking down on gentlemen's clubs) seems like overblown rhetoric. Why not have Council hearings on the matter, call in some experts, and give it some consideration? Why is that so scary?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/07/08 12:14 AM | Print |
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