Putnam sheriff candidates debate tactics on immigration enforcement
-
- October
- 19
The two candidates for Putnam County sheriff spoke to the Journal News editorial board today, and spent time debating which of them would work more closely with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Neither one believes that the much publicized 287(g) training — provided by ICE to local officers — is the answer. But both made clear they wanted to work closely with ICE to help identify criminal suspects with a questionable immigration status.
You can see a video of the discussion here by clicking the “on demand” button at the bottom of the Editorial Spotlight video screen.
Before they got onto this issue, Republican Sheriff Don Smith was asked what his department had done to overcome language barriers in Putnam, particularly on the topic of DWI. He responded that the department has worked with a county liaison — Community Affairs Director Patricia Perez — to communicate with Spanish speakers. But that position was eliminated in the recent budget passed by the county legislature. (Unless the position is restored, she will be out by the end of the calendar year.) Smith went on to talk about immigration enforcement.
Democratic challenger Kevin McConville faulted the department for not doing further outreach to the immigrant population. He said there was not even a single sign in the immigrant enclave of Brewster/Southeast that addressed DWI or other issues, and promised to reach out through church and civic organizations to develop trust between the sheriff’s office and the community.
Neither candidate mentioned, as we reported in July, that the Putnam Sheriff’s Office, an agency with 141 officers, has only two Spanish-speaking deputies. Four Spanish-speakers serve as correction officers.
On the immigration-enforcement question, McConville said he would provide ICE with an office in the Sheriff’s department, so that an ICE agent would be available to work with any law enforcement agency in the county.
Smith said he’d welcome an ICE agent working in the Putnam jail, as in Westchester and Suffolk, but said the volume of work in Putnam wouldn’t justify it.
Smith had been blasted by Republican opponents who favored the 287(g) program. By contrast, McConville noted that the program was faulted by the GAO and others for its lack of standard procedures. The program, now being revamped, is still opposed by advocates out of concern over racial profiling and damaged community relations.
Smith seemed pleased to agree with McConville on something, saying, “You’re probably my first opponent to recognize that 287(g) was not an effective program.”
(Photos: Sheriff Donald Smith, top, and challenger Kevin McConville. By Robert F. Rodriguez/The Journal News)
This entry was posted
on Monday, October 19th, 2009 at 5:32 pm by Leah Rae.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
| 
Two more morons who won’t do anything about illegal aliens.
Where is Sheriff Joe from AZ?
Having watched this debate between these two candidates, I’m fearful that neither is willing or capable of addressing the criminal illegal alien problem. Consider the following:
1) McConville spoke about 287G being non effective, yet the Center for Immigration Studies last week released the following:
The October 15 deadline for local law enforcement agencies to sign the new 287(g) agreements has been reached. DHS is expected to announce that nearly all the local partners have agreed to continue in the program. A forthcoming report by the Center for Immigration Studies helps explain why: 287(g) has helped reduce immigration-related public safety problems in participating jurisdictions, while significantly contributing to the productivity of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in removing illegal aliens.
The report, “The 287(g) Program: Protecting Home Towns and Homeland,” includes statistics from ICE and local 287(g) agencies and describes the various types of 287(g) programs and why they are effective. Authors Jessica Vaughan and James R. Edwards, Jr. also discuss some of the challenges facing the program, such as threats of reduced funding from Congress, opposition from ethnic and civil liberties groups, and efforts by the current administration to impose limits on how local partners can use 287(g). The study will be published next week at http://www.cis.org; advanced copies are available to the media. Some of the key findings:
* 287(g) provides a significant boost to ICE’s ability to identify and remove aliens who have committed crimes. In 2008, the number of 287(g) arrests (45,368) was equal to one-fifth of all criminal aliens identified by ICE in prisons and jails nationwide (221,085).
* 287(g) is cost-effective and much less expensive than other criminal alien identification programs such as Secure Communities and Fugitive Operations. For example, in 2008 ICE spent $219 million to remove 34,000 fugitive aliens (who are mostly criminals). In 2008, ICE was given $40 million for 287(g), which produced more than 45,000 arrests of aliens who were involved in state and local crimes.
* The biggest obstacle to improving and expanding 287(g) is the lack of funding for bed space to detain illegal aliens who have committed crimes who are discovered by local agencies. Currently ICE is removing fewer than half of the criminal aliens identified under 287(g).
2) Smith continues to speak of the illegal immigration crisis as ‘civil’ violations of the law. Don is still not factually correct on the civil vs. criminal distinctions of illegal immigration. He continues to cite immigration violations as being civil infractions. My issue with Don on the criminal illegal alien front remains that he feels that his deputies may not enforce Federal immigration law because illegal aliens have not committed a felony and, as such, the local officers may not have the authority.
This distinction is irrelevant since the courts have agreed that state and local police have inherent authority to enforce all federal immigration laws against violators, whether the violation is a civil or a criminal offense. That being said, the only instance in which illegal immigration is a civil, rather than criminal, violation is when an alien either overstays his/her legal visa or violates the terms of his/her visa. However, if that alien then obtains employment, a criminal act has been committed – most often by the alien (presentation to the prospective employer of an expired, fake, stolen, or altered document), but sometimes by the employer (failure to comply with the I-9 process). So, most illegal aliens – even overstays – have committed a criminal violation.
The first time an alien crosses the border illegally, he or she is guilty of a misdemeanor. The second and subsequent times constitute felonies. Both are criminal violations. Don needs to stop citing these acts as civil violations.
The only distinction between a misdemeanor and a felony offense is the length of potential jail time; any crime punishable with up to one year’s imprisonment is a misdemeanor, while an offense punishable with more than one year is a felony.
What we saw between these two candidates were glaring examples of two individuals not knowing the facts or the law.
Ed Kowalski
911 Families For A Secure America
There are so many criminals in all American cities who speak only Spanish, legal or illegal, that all city budgets should allot enough funds to deal with the crminality and incacerations these people create. More Spanish speaking cops are definitely needed to deal with the street gangs,illiterate undocumented workers that come with Spanish speaking cultures. I mean isn’t this what places like NYC at the turn of the century did with Irish and other European peoples when all business and law enforcement was done with ethnic interpeters. So why sholdn’t the Latinos get the same civil right to drive w/o a license, insurance, registration, DUI, DWI like the gaubachos do. Es yust racismo, si?
You summed it up good Manual L. Most hispanics are criminals
in some way. The illegals are of course breaking the law
and even the legal ones are breaking the law in some way. Just look at
the papers everyday. As their population grows so does
their criminal behavior. This is what they bring to the table.
It is incredible that anyone thinks there should be an outreach program to anybody who drives dangerously drunk- except the Journal News and other people who don’t live in the area.