This Sept. 29, 2011 photo shows Section - 5 at the Cook County Jail in Chicago, the …
This Sept. 29, 2011 photo shows Section - 5, background, at the Cook County Jail …
CHICAGO (AP) — The release of more than 40 suspected illegal immigrants jailed in Cook County on felonies has added fuel to a contentious debate over public safety and local authorities' defiance of a White House program that aims to pursue more criminal deportations.
The program depends on police and sheriff's deputies to hold suspected illegal immigrants who get arrested beyond the time when they would otherwise be released. But commissioners in the county around Chicago recently adopted a new law that orders the sheriff to ignore all federal requests to detain immigrants after they complete their sentences or post bail.
Other places, such as San Francisco, have taken similar measures, part of a backlash against the Obama administration, which many say is unfairly seeking to deport immigrants accused of traffic violations and other minor offenses. But Cook County's new ordinance is the first to forbid a sheriff from holding suspected felons as well as those accused of misdemeanors.
"It puts residents at risk, and it puts my police officers at risk," said Rod Craig, mayor of Hanover Park in suburban Chicago, who is livid about the release of three suspected illegal immigrants charged with assaulting two officers and trying to take one of their guns.
Detaining the immigrants is supposed to give federal agents time to pick up the suspects and begin the deportation process. But one after another, local governments have complained about that the Secure Communities program, which gives immigration agents access to fingerprints collected at jails. They say the practice costs too much money and treats immigrants unfairly, especially those accused of only small-time offenses such as shoplifting, traffic violations or drunken driving.
Some states have pulled out of the program. In Illinois, for instance, Gov. Pat Quinn declared the government would not cooperate. New York's governor also suspended participation. And in San Francisco, the sheriff refuses to honor detention requests from the Customs and Immigration Enforcement for illegal immigrants charged with misdemeanors.
In Cook County, which is overwhelmingly Democratic and has seen rapid growth in its Latino population, commissioners on both side of the issue captured the anger and fears that are being voiced far beyond the Chicago area.
"What we are doing is righting a wrong against people who are on the soil of Cook County under the protection of the U.S. Constitution," said Commissioner Larry Suffredin, a Democrat who supported the measure.
Why, asked Jesus Garcia, the commissioner who sponsored the ordinance, should immigrants be treated any differently than anyone else who has been arrested?
"By refusing to detain people who are entitled to their freedom, based merely on a request from (immigration agents) we are upholding our system of justice..." he said in a statement.
Another commissioner warned that the board was putting people in danger — and risking a firestorm of negative publicity if someone who is released commits a violent crime.
Less than a month after the board acted, more than 40 suspected illegal immigrants charged with or convicted of felonies have walked to freedom instead of into the arms of federal agents, according to the sheriff's department.
"This is our Willie Horton moment in Cook County," warned Commissioner Timothy Schneider, a Republican who voted against it. He was referring to a convicted killer who was released as part of a Massachusetts prison furlough program and then raped a woman. The case was used to devastating effect in 1988, when George H.W. Bush's presidential campaign revealed that his opponent, Michael Dukakis, supported the program when he was Massachusetts governor.
Schneider and others say that all the ordinance has done is squander an opportunity to keep dangerous felons off the streets. Immigration officials agree that it raises the risk that criminals known to be dangerous will be freed.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has been relatively quiet. After it became clear that the board was going to go further than his staff recommended, Dart's representative would not say anything beyond pledging that the sheriff's department would enforce the ordinance, despite repeated attempts by county board members to get him to do so.
"When they wanted a more sweeping ordinance that would let everybody go free no matter what their criminal charge was, we just backed away from the conversation," Dart spokesman Steve Patterson said.
Judges can always order an illegal immigrant — or any other suspect — held on bond so high that the person cannot pay. So most of the 280 people who have been the subject of federal detention requests aren't going anywhere. But a few will inevitably find enough money to get out.
That possibility, as well as the fact that some of those who have been released have failed to show up in court, all help explain why immigrant-rights activists, sheriffs and others are waiting to see if the board's actions backfire.
"I think everybody is watching to see how it plays out politically," said Arturo Venegas Jr., a former police chief in Sacramento, Calif., and immigration consultant who until recently served on a federal panel that was reviewing government efforts to find illegal immigrants.
Comment:
More anti-illegal immigration malarkey. What these governments fail to accept is the EVERY illegal alien in this country is a criminal, simply for being here in the first place. After all, they're not called "illegal" aliens for nothing. Oh, I forgot. We're not supposed to say illegal aliens. We're supposed to say "undocumented workers." Yeah, and as Dr. Hibbard on The Simpsons said, "...and Hillbillies prefer to be called 'Sons Of The Soil', but it ain't gonna happen!" No offense intended to our Southern comrades I assure you. Dr. Hibbard said that, not me.
Anyway, I don't want to keep repeating myself, especially when I'm preaching to the choir. I'm just going to say that these invaders ARE criminals, and the only right they deserve is a quick, safe, and comfortable ride back to their native land. No excuses. No exceptions. No compassion.
To all you Anti-hate people out there, yes, I am being harsh. But there are only two ways to solve this problem. We have to be harsh. We can't solve this problem with kindness, compassion, and brotherly love, unless we throw open the borders to all. The latter is completely unacceptable to me.
Thanks to Dr. Johann Hauptmann for bringing this to my attention.
Dan 88!
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