Mecklenburg County Sheriff Jim Pendergraph (video) yesterday said a federal enforcement program has enabled his department to deport 860 illegal immigrants.
The four-term sheriff, speaking Monday at a luncheon for the John Locke Foundation, said about 600 additional lawbreakers in custody await deportation. In the nine months that Mecklenburg has had the program, about 10 percent of the aliens have been re-arrested.
“What does that tell you about our border security?” Pendergraph asked rhetorically.
The 287(g) program, named for the section in the 1996 Federal Immigration and Nationality Act where the program is described, deputizes local and state police officers as agents of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Local law enforcement agencies apply to participate in the program, and those accepted have their personnel trained “to identify, process, and when appropriate, detain immigration offenders they encounter during their regular, daily law-enforcement activity.”
Mecklenburg County sheriff’s deputies completed training last spring, and, according to Pendergraph, officers in Alamance and Gaston counties have just completed training for their own programs.
Pendergraph said he had noticed increased numbers of suspected illegal immigrants among suspects in Mecklenburg County about seven years ago. He said most of them would enter the jail system unable to speak English, get fingerprinted, post a small amount of bail, and then get released.
Pendergraph said he was disturbed by the trend, and believing the only true information he was getting about offenders was their photo and fingerprint, thought there had to be a better way to identify people. He learned about the 287(g) program from Orange County, Calif. Sheriff Michael Carona.
Pendergraph, who said, “I’m a taxpayer too,” reported that he has seen the effect illegal immigration has had on emergency rooms, education and law enforcement, increasing costs and straining public resources. He said he is “appalled” that the number of local law-enforcement organizations that won’t sign on to the 287(g) program, including one in his own county — the Charlotte Police Department.
“If 3,000 sheriffs in these United States did this,” Pendergraph said, “could we make a difference? You better believe it.”
Still, the sheriff said he is frustrated by the inaction of President Bush and Congress over the problem with lax U.S. border security. He said he has pleaded with both directly, but the 10 percent recidivism he has seen of jailed aliens demonstrates that national enforcement is not a priority for national political leaders.
Paul Chesser ([email protected]) is associate editor of Carolina Journal.