An ICE agent in northern Virginia
Recent data released by Collier County’s Criminal Alien Task Force (CATF) reveals that only a small percentage of those detained under Section 287(g) — a federal program that grants Collier the authority to conduct immigration law enforcement — are actually dangerous criminals, a fact cited in a March 2010 Office of Inspector General report as evidence that 287(g) is failing to meet its proponents’ stated goals. #
Collier’s Criminal Alien Task Force (CATF) has been conducting immigration law enforcement under 287(g) since September 2007. #
Statistics given to The Florida Independent by CATF show that all of the county’s 10,500 inmates were interviewed between October 2007 and June 2010 for the purpose of determining their immigration status. CATF found that a total of 6,812 were here illegally. Following 287(g) guidelines, 2,440 of those illegal aliens were issued detainers for removal — allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to process them for deportation. #
The data shows that 15,556 charges were filed against the 2,440 inmates; 77 percent of those charges were misdemeanors, 26 percent felonies. Out of all the inmate’s issued detainers, 1,957 have since been deported from the U.S. The majority of detainers for removal were placed on inmates from Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras. #
When asked why 4,200 illegal immigrants were not issued retainers, the officer who oversees Collier’s implementation of 287(g) in its jail, Lt. Keith Harmon, says, “Not everyone gets a detainer. We hand over the information about detainees and ICE decides.” #
Harmon adds that some remain in custody and others could have been detained on charges from other jurisdictions: The latter was handed over to other law enforcement agencies before ICE commences the deportation process. #
“CATF transports convicts processed for removal to Krome, the ICE detention center in Miami, in ICE vans, and the sheriff’s office gets reimbursed by ICE for the hour’s county officers spend transporting those inmates,” explains Harmon. #
But are those being detained, serious criminals? #
Section 287(g) classifies crime into three tiers. Level 1 crimes include major felonies like murder, rape, kidnapping, and large-scale drug trafficking; Level 2 includes battery, petty larceny, felony fraud, and minor theft; Level 3 crimes are misdemeanors. #
Collier County officers interviewed a total of 1,046 illegal inmates from all three levels between December 2009 and June 10, 2010. Only 97 inmates had been arrested for Level 1 crimes, meaning that only 9 percent of those arrested under the authority of 287(g) were serious criminals. Twenty-five percent were arrested on Level 2 charges; the remainder had been picked up on misdemeanors. #
According to Commander Mike Williams, the majority of these Level 3 offenders’ crimes were minor and nonviolent. Level 3 offenses include driving without a license and driving with an open container. #
A March 2010 Office of Inspector General Report that examined the 287(g) program found roughly the same percentage of Level 1 arrests at four sites, and determined this did not meet the stated goals of 287(g), to “identify and process for removal criminal aliens who pose a threat to public safety or a danger to the community.” #
The OIG report also indicated that ICE “has not established a process to ensure that the emphasis of 287(g) efforts is placed on aliens that fall within the highest-priority level.” #
“We have limited resources,” Williams says, explaining some of the challenges in implementing 287(g). “We can’t process all these cases. We have to balance removing a Level 2 criminal as opposed to a Level 3 criminal. We also have to take into consideration a variety of issues like bed space at ICE detention centers.” #
