Students for a Democratic Society hosted a forum Wednesday night at the UC on the controversial Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act in anticipation of the Oct. 27 vote to re-sign the agreement in Houston.
The Immigration and Nationality Act is a federal law, but Section 287(g), created in 1995, allows local police officers who have received training from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to carry out immigration enforcement functions, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Laura Boston, an organizer for the Houston Interfaith Worker Justice Center, was a guest speaker at the forum.
‘The Houston Police Department (is) issued a monetary incentive,’ Boston said. ‘The amount is not enough, because of the high costs it takes to implement the program.’
It is up to the Harris County Commissioner’s Court whether to re-sign the agreement. Any state or local government that wants to take advantage of Section 287(g) is able to do so. As of October, 77 jurisdictions in 25 states have signed up for the program.
‘One of our biggest concerns is that local law enforcement entities have engaged in racial profiling, trying to enforce immigration law instead of having a legitimate reason to arrest someone and using ethnicity as a proxy,’ ACLU Texas Director of Policy Rebecca Bernhardt said.
‘(Section 287[g]) is a narrow provision of law that permits local or state law enforcement to enter a memorandum of understanding ‘- a relationship ‘- with the federal government to have trained local officers in governmental law to perform a designated function of federal immigration duties.’
According to the language in Section 287(g), it’s a program designed to carry out the ‘removal of criminal aliens’ who are identified as ‘dangerous.”
The Obama administration has said Section 287(g) was created in order to crack down on illegal immigration.
‘The perspective is that it is a bad program for Texas because of the high Latino population,’ SDS member Robinson Block said. ‘Especially if the program is being used as a racial profiler.’
Block also said that Section 287(g) conflicts with civil rights.
‘Cops can’t ask people about their income taxes and then arrest them for it,’ Block said. ‘It will only discourage illegal immigrants to cooperate with police.’
All officers must undergo a four-week training program, and they will continue to be supervised after completion.
According to ICE officials, 840 officers have been certified in the program, and as of January 2006, more than 70,000 individuals who are suspected of being in the country illegally have been identified.
Another reason some counties such as Morris County, N.J., have rejected the program is because Section 287(g) provides no money to pay local police salaries, and it shifts immigrant detention costs to local governments.
‘(Section) 287(g) means local law enforcement will spend a lot of money to train officers to do the federal government’s ‘dirty work’ by raising peoples’ taxes,’ Bernhardt said.
The ACLU says counties that sign up for the program have found that costs skyrocket. In Virginia, Prince William County spent $5 million more of local taxes than anticipated in its first year under the Section 287(g) program. The county subsequently raised property taxes and cut police and fire safety budgets to compensate.
‘Immigration rights are complicated, but they are a civil issue and not a criminal one,’ Boston said. ‘This country was born on immigrants. (HIWJC) doesn’t have a solution, but we believe everyone has the right to mobility.’
