Myrick says deportation program helps N.C.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
By: Franco Ordoñez

State and local leaders on Monday defended a $40 million federal program used by Mecklenburg County that identifies jailed illegal immigrants after a congressional report criticized it for targeting minor offenders instead of serious criminals.

U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, a Charlotte Republican who lobbied for the program to be brought to North Carolina, said the report last week by the Government Accountability Office is biased and unfair. She said it could be a sign that the federal government is softening its stance on illegal immigration.

“The administration, I'm concerned, is laying the groundwork frankly to gut the 287(g) program,” Myrick said in a news conference at the county jail. “And this to me says we're giving up on the fight on illegal immigration. Period.”

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement program known as 287(g) rose to national prominence after being put in place in 2006 by then-Mecklenburg Sheriff Jim Pendergraph. It gives local law enforcement the federal powers to determine the immigration status of people who are arrested.

But the report by the GAO, the nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, says the program was created to address serious crimes, such as gangs and narcotics smuggling. It found that some local law enforcement agencies nationwide have used it to deport people for such minor offenses as speeding. The GAO studied 29 of the 67 local agencies that participate, including the Mecklenburg Sheriff's Office.

Mecklenburg Sheriff Chipp Bailey, who succeeded Pendergraph, said the program never stipulated who would be targeted. Bailey said whether a crime is minor or serious “is in the eyes of the beholder.”

The only way people get in the program, he said, is if they commit a crime and are arrested.

Local critics say the program lacks transparency, breaks up families and creates divisions between law enforcement and the immigrant community.

Maudia Melendez, who heads the Jesus Ministry, a Charlotte group that advocates for immigrants, said 287(g) leads to racial profiling. And she said that deported parents' children, many American-born, suffer from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and separation anxiety.

“We believe that 287(g) has violated the civil rights of the immigrant community,” Melendez said at another recent news conference.

Bailey dismissed charges of racial profiling. He provided statistics that showed fewer Latino men were arrested in recent years on traffic violations than black or white men.

Said Pendergraph, “It's a shame that we as law enforcement officers … have to defend doing our job, which is to identify criminals in our community.”

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/politics/story/586964.html
Charlotte Observer 3/10/2009