| 287(g)
Serves as Police Tool |
By Rebecca Plevin
Observer Staff Writer |
| After about seven months of participation in the 287(g)
program, Police Chief Toussaint Summers said the Herndon Police
are more knowledgeable about immigration issues and more effective
and efficient in dealing with immigration. |
| About a year ago, the Town Council approved an agreement
with the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, authorizing
Herndon Police officers to take on federal immigration duties.
At that time, some residents raised concerns about how the
program would affect the police's relationship with the community,
how the police would avoid racial profiling, and how much
the program would cost the town. But Summers said that since
the program went into effect in June, none of those fears
has been realized. |
| The 287(g) program has "only enhanced our ability to serve
the public," Summers said. Through ICE training, the police
learned to ask the right questions about immigration status
and to better scrutinize documents, and they have learned
more about immigration and the visa process, he said. The
program, he said, "Adds to the officers' resources." It is,
"more tools in the toolbox." |
| Through the 287(g) program, specially trained Herndon police,
under the supervision of ICE, have the authority to arrest
without warrant, interrogate, transport, detain and process
for deportation any illegal immigrant charged with a group
A offense or driving under the influence. Group A offenses
include sexual assault, fraud, drug offenses, robbery, prostitution,
homicide and theft. |
| Residents raised concerns about racial profiling since authorized
police officers can initiate a 287(g) investigation into anyone
they come into contact with during their normal course of
duties and who they have reason to believe might be an illegal
immigrant. Officers will run a criminal background check of
the person and, if the person has been convicted of a Group
A offense or driving under the influence, the officers can
then ask a series of questions to determine a person's immigration
status. |
| Summers said he has not received any complaints about racial
profiling thus far. "We constantly emphasize that racial profiling
is not an acceptable practice," he said. He said the police
know that illegal immigrants come in, "all sizes, shapes and
colors." He said, "We judge each case according to its merits."
|
| He said the police have been very careful to ensure that
they "use this authority properly." |
| Residents also raised concerns about whether members of
immigrant communities would no longer trust the police, but
Summers said he does not believe the program has impacted
the police's ability to make contacts within the community.
Summers said the average citizen "continues to understand
we are only doing our job." If a person does nothing wrong,
he said, he or she has "nothing to fear." He said the initiative
targets people who have already been convicted of a serious
crime and come in contact with police again, who present a
"strain on law enforcement." |
| Summers said it has proved beneficial to have officers use
their 287(g) training in the course of their regular duties,
instead of creating a special task force aimed at immigration.
"The officers on the street have the most contact with the
community," he said, so they can "use the tool better." |
| Summers also said the 287(g) program has increased the police's
efficiency. Before, he said, police officers would contact
ICE when they suspected a criminal was an illegal immigrant,
and an ICE agent either would not have time to travel to Herndon
or the Herndon police would waste time waiting for an ICE
agent to arrive at the station. |
| Now, he said, the squad spends less time waiting for ICE.
The 287(g)-trained officers act as a "force multiplier for
ICE," he said, because the police are "standing in the stead
of ICE." |
| Since the program began, the Herndon Police have not released
the names or the number of police officers trained by ICE.
Summers said the police instituted this policy because they
would like citizens to believe that all officers are 287(g)
trained, so that all officers will be treated the same. "We
don't want to create false fear," he said. |
| His goal, he said, is to eventually have all the town's
officers trained through the program. |
| Since the 287(g) program began in June, the Herndon police
have detained and jailed 46 people for suspected immigration
violations. They conducted 287(g) investigations on 126 people
who police had come in contact with through police duties.
|
| Summers said the Herndon police do not track what happens
to people once ICE has detained them. ICE spokesman Richard
Rocha said ICE does not have available information on the
status of each of the 46 cases. |
