| 287(g)
Top Focus of Forum |
By Katie Murphy
Observer Staff Writer |
| During a forum Monday night, Republican candidates for Loudoun
County sheriff debated whether Loudoun should participate
in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement 287(g) program.
|
| In August 2006, Kraig Troxell, spokesman for the sheriff's
office, said the office determined that participation in the
program would be too expensive and would take deputies' focus
off local problems. |
| The 287(g) program trains officers to identify and process
criminal illegal immigrants and to investigate criminal immigration
violations. The local agency pays for all costs associated
with the program and ICE provides instruction and materials.
|
| Greg Ahlemann, a former sheriff's deputy who is running
against incumbent Sheriff Steve Simpson, said if elected,
he would implement the program on his first day in office.
|
| He said the county should be more proactive in addressing
the gang problem in the county and 287(g) is part of that.
Ahlemann said over the years, enforcement has stayed the same,
but gang activity has worsened. |
| He said Simpson did not publicly acknowledge the gang problem
until 2003, when in collaboration with Congressman Frank Wolf
(R- 10th) the Northern Virginia Gang Task Force was created.
However Ahlemann said he remembered that gangs were a problem
in 1996 when he started working evening shifts in Sterling
Park. He said the 287(g) program started in 1996, but Simpson
never considered it back then. |
| Ahlemann said the Town of Herndon has joined the program,
so he predicts more gang activity and illegal immigration
will move out of Herndon and deeper into Loudoun. He also
cited the November hit-and-run accident in which Herndon resident
Joseph Passarelli died after being struck by a car driven
by former Sterling resident Jose Santos Sibrian Espinoza. |
| Sibrian Espinova is an illegal immigrant who was deported
before being arrested in the case. Ahlemann said court records
in Fairfax and Loudoun counties cited Sibrian Espinoza with
over a dozen traffic violations in the past 6 years. Ahlemann
said Sibrian Espinoza was in Loudoun's custody several times,
but no one was able to run a check on him because the only
way to access the illegal immigrant database is by joining
287(g). Ahlemann also said once the county is holding an illegal
immigrant on federal charges, then the federal government
pays the housing fees. |
| Simpson said the training was not all it seemed. He said
Loudoun County has a working relationship with ICE through
the regional gang task force, which includes two ICE agents.
He also said that ICE removes illegal immigrants from their
jail system after about 24 to 48 hours versus housing these
criminals until the federal government gets the chance to
deport. |
| Simpson said Loudoun jails are already overcrowded, so keeping
illegal immigrants for ICE would only worsen the county's
jail problems. |
| Simpson said that in 1995, when he first campaigned for
office, he was aware of the increase in gangs, but at that
time it was mostly homegrown gangs. Now the area is seeing
crimes than before, including the sniper shooters and gangs
that are more like organized crime, he said. Seizing these
criminal's assets has been one of the ways in which the sheriff's
department has battled against gangs, he said. But over the
years, he said, he has had difficulty securing funding, which
has caused delays. |
| He also said the sheriff's office under his direction has
implemented the community policing program, installed resource
officers at schools in the county, and created the traffic
safety unit and the alcohol mobilized testing center. |
| The candidates' forum, which was sponsored by HelpSaveLoudoun,
also featured two candidates for the Catoctin District seat
on the Board of Supervisors, Geary Higgins and Robert Bruton.
Higgins and Bruton's discussion also focused on illegal immigration
and how local government can deal with it. |
