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Sep. 30, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Deal will let county officers start deportation proceedings

By LYNNETTE CURTIS
©2008 REVIEW-JOURNAL

Clark County Detention Center inmates stand in line for processing in May.
Review-Journal File Photo

Immigration officials have entered into an agreement with Las Vegas police that will allow specially trained officers at the Clark County Detention Center to identify immigration violators and initiate deportation proceedings against them.

The agreement is expected to substantially increase deportations of local undocumented immigrants who are jailed, officials with the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Monday.

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    • The so-called 287 (g) partnership between ICE and the Metropolitan Police Department empowers local officers to do some forms of immigration policing.

    After a person has been arrested and taken to jail, officers will "take it one step further to ascertain" that person's legal status and deportability, said Steven Branch, field office director for ICE detention and removal operations in Nevada. "Officers will step in and do what (ICE) agents are currently doing."

    Branch wouldn't specify how officers would determine immigration status. But he emphasized that the agreement will affect only those who have already been arrested on other charges.

    Sheriff Doug Gillespie declined to comment on Monday, but told the Review-Journal late last year that a 287 (g) partnership would be limited to the jail and would not affect a long-standing department policy that prevents local police on the street from asking potential immigration violators about their legal status.

    "I want to make it very clear that this won't change my position about police officers at Metro stopping people or going into businesses strictly because what is looked upon as illegal status," Gillespie said at the time. "We'll be dealing with these people after they're arrested and booked into the Clark County Detention Center."

    A department spokesman on Monday confirmed that police finalized the partnership with ICE earlier this month, but said the program hasn't yet begun and details are still being finalized.

    Designated jail officials must complete four weeks of training before participating in the program. Details of what the training will entail were not available Monday.

    Those who complete the training will then gain access to a federal database of known immigration violators that will tell them whether an inmate has been deported before or if the citizenship status of that inmate is in question, said Las Vegas Police spokesman Ramon Denby.

    If an inmate is flagged on the software program, that information will be passed along to ICE officials, he said. Information on how people will be selected to be checked against the database was not available Monday. Denby said more details about how the program will work will be released in the coming weeks.

    Jail officials will be authorized to put immigration detainers on certain inmates determined to be legally deportable, allowing ICE to step in upon resolution of criminal cases, said Virginia Kice, an ICE spokeswoman.

    The police department applied for the partnership last year. ICE officials say enforcement efforts are more effective in areas with such agreements.

    Kristen Telfer, president of Americans4America, a local anti-illegal-immigration group, applauded the partnership.

    "If criminals who are illegal aliens know they'll be checked once they get to CCDC and deported, maybe that will be a deterrent," she said.

    But Telfer was not convinced police would investigate the immigration status of inmates, even under the agreement, because local police don't believe it is their job to enforce immigration laws, she said.

    Leticia Saucedo, co-director of the Immigration Law Clinic at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said she's concerned that the partnership will push members of the immigrant community "further into the shadows."

    "They won't want to come forward with information about crime because they'll be afraid of being arrested and deported," she said. "This is going to make people more afraid of the police."

    But Denby said he doesn't think the partnership will harm relations between police and the immigrant community.

    "We're not a fly-by-night organization," Denby said. "Before we run one individual, we're going to make sure we have the proper checks and balances in place."

    Vicenta Montoya, a local immigration attorney, said she's comfortable with the partnership because it may be a way to "find those people who slip through the cracks and, many times, are not good people and should be put into immigration proceedings."

    "My only concern would have been if police were asking people about immigration status on the street," she said.

    But Fernando Romero, president of Hispanics in Politics, said he's worried that it won't be just "gang-bangers and drug dealers" who get caught up in the new program, but also "the guy who's been here 20 years, paid taxes, has kids in school" and gets arrested for simply forgetting to pay a speeding ticket.

    "Our reservation is about people who live by the rules and whose only sin is they never got documentation," he said.

    Nationally, 62 local and state police groups have immigration partnerships, according to ICE.

    Review-Journal writer Antonio Planas contributed to this report. Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.

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    Gary Contreras wrote on October 06, 2008 03:10 PM: Mr.Romero needs to remember that none documentation is illegal no matter how long they have been here. The kids give him and them no right to be here either. There is no such thing as anchor babies(illegals with babies born in america). You have to read, write, and speak english to be an american anyway. So i think Mr. Romero needs to worry about teaching these people how to be an american and deal with the deportation issue.


    Anon. wrote on October 06, 2008 02:28 PM: It may be that the Mexican consulate in LV is not cooperating with Metro.
    Upon requesting identity information on Mexican nationals in the U.S.either legally or illegally, the Mexican Consulate in LV says their records are private & has refused to cooperate with LVMPD.


    BobbyT wrote on October 01, 2008 11:06 AM: Obviously Saucedo doesn't shop at Wal Mart, because there aren't any shadows in that place, and its full of illegals.

    To Romero I say- anyone that illegally enters our country, is an irresponsible person, and needs to be removed. The only reason they pay taxes, is because the employers are supposed to deduct it, not because the illegal is such a great person.

    I say let them be great in their own country!


    News flash wrote on October 01, 2008 10:37 AM:
    AP had an article today stating that "Migrants living in the U.S. have sent home(in U.S.$) $15.5 billion in the first eight months of this year, 4% less than the same period the year before". "Remittances are Mexico's second-largest source of foreign income, next to oil exports." Disgusting!


    You're right wrote on October 01, 2008 10:23 AM: The Joker is so right. No other country would put up with the ILLEGAL immigrates like we have. Just try to go into Mexico illegally. Even if you want to live there, a lot of restrictions are put on you. They don't want you working their jobs. You need to bring your own $ and put it into their economy. Are we truly idiots?


    THE JOKER wrote on October 01, 2008 07:09 AM: MGH, PLEASE TELL ME ABOUT ANY OTHER COUNTRY ON THIS EARTH WHERE THIS B.S. GO'S ON. AS FAR AS THE REST OF THE WORLD HATING US, FINE..NO MORE SOUP FOR YOU! YOU OBVIOUSLY HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THIS COUNTRY, THE BEST PART ABOUT THIS COUNTRY IS YOU CAN LEAVE IT ANY TIME YOU WANT! IM THE JOKER AND I APPROVED THIS MESSAGE.


    MGH wrote on October 01, 2008 04:23 AM: Just another flagrant disregard for the rights of the (ALIEN. The immgration laws as they are enforced today have only bought violence and war to this country. Again the law inacts more power to individuals who have no right to say who or what another person status may or might me. If we are going to this type of policing, then we should burn the american flag and the delclaration of independence. People have forgotten what this country was built upon, and have totally sheredded the rights to due process laws. These laws we imply to people who have been in this country for many years..people who have family ties is not only unlawful..but immoral in my eyes, and in Gods eyes thats for sure. This is why we are disliked throughout the world and a great part of reasons why people want to harm this country.


    Tom, Burbank wrote on September 30, 2008 11:13 PM: "Quit chasing illegals: Legalize them. Give them the right documents to be here." Another illegal with her hand out looking for a gimme-gimme handout. They don't deserve the right documents because they purposely chose to not come here the right way.

    There was a sweep of illegal aliens here in Los Angeles county this past week and over 1,000 illegal aliens were apprehended (I didn't say it was a thorough sweep) and they were from 34 different countries. 34! This isn 't about race, it's about the law.


    BUZZLYTYEAR wrote on September 30, 2008 09:37 PM: BUT WHO'S GOING TO DO ALL THOSE JOBS (THEY KEEP TALKING ABOUT) THAT AMERICANS WON'T DO?
    ANSWER: LET'S TURN OFF THE VIDEO GAMES AND PUT OUR TEENAGERS BACK TO WORK!!!
    THE JOKER APPROVED THIS MESSAGE TOO.


    HereWeGoAgain wrote on September 30, 2008 09:17 PM: I think this is too little too late. How many criminals have already made their way in? Now they are trying to clean up the mess that should not have happened to begin with. How many crimes have already been committed? Aside from the crimes what about the financial burden that this is going to cause? How could anyone defend illegal immigration? I understand some of the circumstances that bring people here and that not all illegal aliens are violent crimminals but it cant be okay for some to be here illegally and not others. The word illegal pretty much says it all. I am all for LEGAL immigration and deporting illegal aliens humanely.


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