By LYNNETTE CURTIS
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
May. 16, 2010
Federal officials have deported almost 1,900 illegal immigrants under a partnership with the Metropolitan Police Department, according to recently released figures.
The partnership, which allows specially trained officers at the Clark County Detention Center to identify immigration violators and place "immigration detainers" on them, began in November 2008.
The detainers let local law enforcement hold deportable inmates after they otherwise would be released so immigration officials can take custody of them.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported 1,487 inmates referred from the county jail between November 2008 and October 2009. ICE deported another 410 from the jail between October 2009 and May 2010.
Las Vegas corrections officers have placed immigration detainers on 2,722 inmates since the partnership began.
"The final determination about deportability is made by the nation's immigration courts," ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said in explaining the difference between the number of detainers and deportations. "Some individuals may not have been deported because the courts ultimately ruled that they were not deportable or granted them some form of legal relief. Others may still be in immigration proceedings."
Those proceedings can continue for months or even years.
ICE has long said deportation totals under such partnerships -- dubbed "287(g)" agreements after the corresponding section of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act -- were unavailable because people referred to the agency by local law enforcement simply became part of ICE's larger caseload.
"We didn't originally track this data," Kice said Wednesday.
But ICE recently began breaking out the local deportation numbers and compiled results from previous years, Kice said.
The agency has 71 such partnerships with law enforcement agencies in 26 states. Las Vegas has the only 287(g) agreement in Nevada.
Civil rights leaders and others have criticized the partnerships, saying they target Hispanics, could lead to racial profiling and make people afraid to report crimes.
But supporters, including Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie, say the agreements target violent criminals and that federal officials aren't adequately enforcing immigration laws.
Gillespie has emphasized that a person's immigration status will be checked locally only after that person is arrested on other charges. His department does not place immigration detainers on illegal immigrants who have no criminal records and have been arrested on only minor charges, he said.
His department spends $1.3 million a year to staff the 287(g) program. So, Clark County has spent $1,027 to staff the program for each prisoner who has been deported so far under the program.
Gillespie has said the program's cost weighs heavily on him in these tough economic times.
But, "I've got to balance the community safety aspect with that," he said earlier this month. "I have to know who is being booked into our jail."
Before the agreement, local officers did not have the ability to check the immigration status of inmates and had to rely on ICE officials to investigate and place detainers on potential immigration violators.
ICE did so only sporadically, and many deportable inmates would be released in the meantime, said Lt. Rich Forbus, who oversees the local 287(g) program.
Nationally, 53,238 people have been deported under ICE's 287(g) partnerships since October 2008. Those deportations included 9,913 people who were referred to ICE from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in the Phoenix area; 9,020 from the Harris County Sheriff's Office around Houston and 2,971 from the Orange County Sheriff's Office in Southern California.
Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com.
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2008
