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GREENSBORO — As the Guilford County’s Sheriff’s Office received federal approval for a program to identify illegal immigrants under arrest Friday, opponents worry that law enforcement might abuse the power.

The program, commonly known as 287(g), is a cooperative partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is designed to allow local officers to check a suspect’s citizenship and detain them for deportation.

Sheriff BJ Barnes has said his deputies would not run the program as extensively as in other areas. In Alamance County, residents have accused authorities of overstepping their immigration authority and arresting illegal immigrants who are innocent or commit minor crimes.

“I don’t have the resources to do ICE’s job,” Barnes said in response to the question that his deputies might begin to increase arrests on immigrant populations.

The paperwork hasn’t crossed his desk, but Barnes said he expected to see the agreement next week.

Opponents worry about concerns raised in Alamance County.

“They’re going to check everyone that’s in custody for the slightest reason, and that creates a reason to put people in custody,” said the Rev. Mark Sills, director of FaithAction International House in Greensboro.

But a new agreement with the Department of Homeland Security, which houses the program, requires local law enforcement to follow up on all criminal charges. The goal, according to a DHS release, helps keep individuals from being arrested on minor offenses as a way to begin removal proceedings.

And the agreement must be signed again after three years for it to continue.

Nonetheless, Sills said he believes the program makes immigrants targets for crime among criminals who believe those immigrants won’t go to police for fear of being deported.

“And if there is a crime and the immigrant is witness to the crime, then the immigrant will not come forward,” Sills said.

Such witnesses aren’t coming forward anyway, Barnes said, adding that asking a witness if they are here legally is unethical.

“We’re not out to target anyone, I don’t care where they’re from,” he said. “Our goal is to protect our citizens and protect any citizens who are in Guilford County.”

Barnes has said that suspects found to be illegal immigrants would not be released on bond but would be held locally until their criminal charge is resolved in court. After that, suspects would be handed over to ICE officials for the deportation process.

The DHS release said that since the program became available in 2006, more than 120,000 individuals, predominantly in jails, have been identified of suspected of being in the country illegally.

Jeremy McKinney, a Greensboro attorney specializing in immigration, predicts large numbers of nonviolent offenders will be swept up in the program.

“At first, you’re going to see a lot of abuse of it,” he said. “Usually, the pattern you’re going to see in the short term is they test the limits of their power. Hopefully, you’ll see a calming down of it.”

McKinney said he was surprised to see that the program had been approved, given the already crowded state of the county’s jail and the fact that a new jail is still only on the drawing board.

“We don’t have the jail space here,” he said. “You’ve already got people sleeping on the floors.”
 

Staff Writer Jason Hardin contributed to this report.
 

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com