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ICE on ice

Posted on February 24, 2009 by Staff

Several weeks ago, the Chatham County Board of Commissioners took a rather brave step. At a time when immigrants are being bashed by a growing demagogy, the commissioners declared no way, no how to joining in immigration enforcement under the Immigration and Customs Enforcement 287(g) program. The program was originally designed to detain and deport convicted criminals; but as we’ve noted before, traffic offenses now make up the bulk of ICE arrests in North Carolina.

Because it can be politically and financially profitable (although the finances are dubious), the program has quickly devolved. Intended to keep society safe, it has created an incentive for racial profiling and left thousands of broken families in its wake.

Thankfully, the people of Chatham County — not all, but a good many of them, including all of the commissioners — have seen what is happening in other counties and been repulsed.

There’s pushback as well in Washington D.C. Congressman David Price said Congress recently ordered the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security to look into how the 287(g) program is being implemented. Price said enforcement should focus on the criminals the program was intended for. He and others are quick to note that the biggest downfall is that the program could do the opposite of what was intended.

Local law-enforcement agencies need the trust of their communities to effectively do their jobs. Local law enforcement being seen as the long arm of federal authority will only serve to alienate members of the immigrant communities. They will be less inclined to report crimes and criminal activity, giving gangs a safe haven to do their business.

The pushback in Chatham and the calls for scrutiny in Washington are a sign, perhaps, that there is a shift in immigration policy. As Price noted in a recent interview with The Citizen, the problems encountered by local governments as they try to deal with public safety and other issues that involve the undocumented are the result of the federal government’s failure to enact a comprehensive and sensible immigration policy.

As a few hundred people in Chatham County proved the other night, there is a great deal of interest in putting an end to policies that are furthering the creation of a permanent underclass in North Carolina.

Chatham County residents have a right to be proud of standing up for some of the basic beliefs that this country was founded on. But all of us share in the shame of what grandstanding, political expediency, and quite possibly outright corruption, has wrought on the families who walk among us everyday, who attend our churches and schools and whose only crime is disrespecting a border for want of a better life.

1 thought on “ICE on ice”

  1. Dee says:
    February 25, 2009 at 2:09 pm

    So whet you are saying is that because the majority of Americans, not the federal government, did not support comprehensive and sensible immigration policy (AMNESTY) we have this problems. NO we have this problem because our borders are open and illegal aliens have no respect for U.S. laws!

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