Did any of the immigrants’ rights groups have anything to say about the announcement of the expansion and “revamping” of the 287(g) program?
287(g) programs allow local law enforcement agents to enforce Federal immigration laws. The revision of the plan is supposed to calm the fears of immigrants and advocates who say that 287(g) programs encourage racial profiling among other abuses.

From the LA Times:

Local police agencies empowered by the federal government to enforce immigration law must focus their efforts on criminals who pose a threat to public safety, with less emphasis on those who commit minor crimes, Department of Homeland Security officials announced Friday…

…Some police departments check immigration status in a wide variety of crimes. Friday’s directive lays out federal priorities: violent crimes such as rape or robbery, as well as major drug offenses; followed by property crimes, such as burglary and fraud.

All 66 police departments that already participate in the program must sign a new, uniform memorandum within 90 days.

They also must agree to pursue the criminal charges that prompted an illegal immigrant’s detention. In other words, police can’t make an arrest just to find out if someone is in the country illegally…

…The memorandum says that police agencies will be bound by civil rights laws and subject to oversight by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as they arrest and detain illegal immigrants for possible deportation. Any agency that cannot prove that it is following those standards could lose its federal authority.

Many immigrant advocates, hope that the revisions will stop abuses, especially in Maricopa County, Arizona under Sheriff Joe Arpaio. However as we have seen in the growing wave of anti-immigrant/anti-Latino violence in the U.S., hate doesn’t follow any laws.

From the WSJ:

“If I’m told not to enforce immigration law except if the alien is a violent criminal, my answer to that is we are still going to do the same thing, 287g or not,” said Mr. Arpaio. His deputies have identified in jail or picked up on the streets more than 30,000 illegal immigrants in the Phoenix area. “We have been very successful,” said the five-term sheriff.

It was also announced that 11 new communities would join the 287g program, showing that the immigration enforcement agenda is a higher priority for the Obama administration than the human rights agenda.
These communities are Monmouth County, N.J., Gwinnett County, Ga., Sheriff’s Department; Rhode Island Department of Corrections; Delaware Department of Corrections Sussex Correctional Institution; Houston Police Department; Mesquite, Nev., Police Department; Morristown, N.J., Police Department; Mesa, Ariz., Police Department; Florence, Ariz., Police Department; Guilford County, N.C., Sheriff’s Office; Charleston County, S.C., Sheriff’s Office.

The New Jersey counties are close enough to New York City to have made my local news and interviews demonstrated that the revisions haven’t increased the trust from immigrant communities, regardless of status.

Image Via / WSJ