As executive director of FaithAction International, a nonprofit that provides assistance to Latinos and other immigrants, Sills echoed fears expressed by many at the April 1 forum that Latinos are increasingly being subjected to racial profiling under federal programs that allow local law enforcement agencies to check the immigration status of people stopped by the police.
“When is it proper for a deputy to question someone’s legal status?” Sills asked the sheriff. “After they have been arrested, after they have been charged and after they have been before a magistrate,” Barnes replied.
Sills then reminded Barnes that he had earlier recounted a story about having personally questioned a driver who appeared to be inebriated and Latino about the person’s legal status at a checkpoint set up to deter drunken driving.
“It appeared to me that they were Latino,” Barnes confirmed. “Yes, I’ll just tell you straight up: I had questions about whether they were legal or not.” Barnes’ comments underscore concerns by civil libertarians and immigrant advocates about the 287(g) program, to which the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office has a pending application.
“287(g) encourages, or at the very least tolerates, racial profiling and baseless stereotyping, resulting in the harassment of local residents and the isolation of an increasingly marginalized community,” a joint report by the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina Foundation and the Immigration & Human Rights Policy Clinic at UNC- Chapel Hill concluded in February.
Sills continued to probe the sheriff for evidence that his deputies might subject Latino motorists to unequal treatment, pressing Barnes for clarification about the basis under which officers might run a person’s name through the Department of Homeland Security’s Automated Biometric Identification System database, which holds information about people who have been caught illegally entering the country.
“If they have a driver’s license and an insurance card, I’m going to take for granted, and an officer probably will too, that they are here legally,” Barnes said. Sills pressed on: “So anybody here who has a legitimate North Carolina driver’s license or a legitimate driver’s license from another state does not need to worry about being run through the database if they are arrested?” he asked.
“If they go through our jail and there is any doubt then they may well be put through that database,” Barnes replied. “What would constitute doubt?” Sills asked. “What factors would tell you, if they have this driver’s license and insurance card, then what would constitute doubt?” “I can’t speak in ambiguity like that,” the sheriff replied, before being drowned out by derisive laughter from the audience.
Sills finally relented on his interrogation. “You see,” the pastor told the sheriff, “it just feels like there’s a difference, like if you’re white and speaking English, you don’t have to worry about these things, but if you’re a person of color and you’re speaking with a foreign accent then maybe there’s going to be some question about whether your documents are valid. After all, it’s not that hard to get documents that really look real and may really be real. So I’m just concerned about how you’re going to have these doubts, for some people to be put through the database and other people to not be put through the database. And if that’s the case, are you not on very thin ice concerning federal laws concerning racial profiling?” For the record, Barnes said in an interview on Monday: “Racial profiling no matter what or where is wrong; it should not occur.”
As public outrage has exploded in recent years about people illegally crossing the border, mainly from Mexico and Central America, to work in the United States, local law enforcement agencies have clamored to sign up for 287(g), with the program spending ballooning from $5 million in 2006 to $54.1 million this year. In 2007, the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office’s 287(g) application got held up, and Barnes held a meeting n his office with sheriffs across the state. They enlisted the support of then-Sen. Elizabeth Dole, who persuaded Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to give the sheriffs access to the database prior to being accepted in the 287(g) program. Many of the sheriffs subsequently appeared in a tough-talking television advertisement supporting Dole’s reelection.
Meanwhile, concerns about racial profiling have grown with the program. A recent US Government Accountability Office report found that more than half of the 29 local law enforcement agencies participating in the program reported that community members raised concerns that use of 287(g) authority would lead to racial profiling and intimidation by law enforcement.
The National Immigration Law Center in Washington questioned how ICE ensures that police do not make arrests based on racial or ethnic profiling, and do not make arrests simply as a pretext to check immigration status in a report released last month.
“ICE fact sheets and press releases do not even indicate a recognition of this issue or a concern that it might occur,” the report states. “Complaints of racial/ethnic profiling and pre-textual arrests have been common under the 287(g) program.”
Panelists at the April 1 forum also expressed concern that the 287(g)program would discourage Latinos from reporting crimes, particularly if
a witness or a spouse accused of domestic abuse were residing in
Greensboro or Guilford County illegally.
“It’s just like the
woman who talked to me on Monday night,” Sills told Barnes. “She saw a
crime occur. She saw them rob someone at gunpoint. She could give
testimony if she was willing to. But we had to advise her not to call
because she was in the county, and your public statements have created
enough fear that we were really afraid that if she came forth she would
get deported.”
“The problem with that, doctor, is that person
can rob and shoot you,” Barnes responded, “and will rob again and
victimize others.”
“Clearly,” Sills rejoined. “Public safety
is undermined.” Barnes acknowledged an incident that took place about
two years ago in which a woman suspected of being undocumented refused
to talk about a crime she had witnessed, and subsequently disappeared.
“That
particular incident that you talked about, about the woman, was an
actual occurrence,” he said. “Basically what it amounted to, there was
a shooting. The woman who was there who witnessed it did not want to
talk, did not have anything to say. She was not arrested, not held
over. It was suspected she may be illegal. Anyway, for whatever reason,
she disappeared the next day. We don’t know what happened to her or
whatever, but we ended up having to investigate the case as it involved
the shooting without that witness.”
In a subsequent interview,
Barnes categorically stated that no one from his agency reported the
woman to ICE, leading to her deportation.
“The only time we
pass on any type of information to ICE is when the person is under
arrest and does not have documentation,” he said. Barnes has said that
the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office had identified 47 inmates in its
detention centers as being undocumented. He added that he is still
waiting to receive a memorandum of understanding from ICE to formally
launch the 287(g) program.
The sheriff said that the reason
for signing up for 287(g) is not so that the sheriff’s office can
identify detainees who are in the United States; his agency is already
required to do that. Rather, he wants to speed up the process of
identifying and processing undocumented offenders.
North
Carolina law requires administrators of county jails and other local
confinement facilities to determine whether a prisoner is a legal
resident by questioning or checking documents, and failing that, to
query ICE, which automatically notifies the federal agency of the local
prisoner’s whereabouts.
The 2007 bill that created the law was
sponsored by Sen. Julia Boseman (D-New Hanover), and went into effect
in 2008. Only one House member, Rep. Paul Luebke (D- Durham), opposed
the bill, and the Senate motion to concur passed unanimously.
“Because
we can find out that information, as you can see by the fact that we’ve
identified 47 who are not legal, but with 287(g) we can do it in a
matter of moments,” the sheriff told those attending the forum. “If we
do not have 287(g) then that person may be held in jail longer while we
wait for that identification to come through. If we can pull up that
information in a matter of moments instead of days, it benefits not
only us to make sure we’re doing what we need to do, but it also
assists the person who has been arrested to show them the documentation
is here, that they are not illegal.”
Barnes expressed a
measure of sympathy for the plight of undocumented immigrants in
Guilford County, whose families can be broken up when a parent is
suddenly deported after getting arrested.
“People do not want
to be deported, do not want to go through this,” he said. “And I can
well understand that. And I was asked a very impassioned question by a
young lady, who asked, ‘What happens to the children in situations like
that?’ These are very real problems, ones that we understand are very
real concerns.”
Later Barnes said, “I think the federal
government is going to have to have some kind of amnesty program….
There is no way in the world we can arrest all these people.”
Still
later, the sheriff added, “These folks who are here who are
undocumented do great service to the community.” Panelists and audience
members also raised concerns that the 287(g) program leads to the
deportation of people arrested for minor offenses.
The NC
Sheriff’s Association reported last year that 33 percent of the
offenses committed by the 3,182 people in deportation proceedings after
being arrested by agencies participating in the 287(g) program were
traffic violations, while 44 percent were charged with criminal
violations ranging from murder to trespassing, and 23 percent were
charged with impaired driving.
“I have immigrant clients in
jail right now who were picked up for minor traffic violations,” said
Marty Rosenbluth, an immigration lawyer based in Durham.
“What
guarantee do you have that 287(g) is going to be used for the purpose
it was intended, which is apprehending serious criminals rather than
deporting people for minor offenses.”
Local sheriffs could be
forgiven for any confusion about the purpose of 287(g). The Government
Accountability Office faulted ICE in January for not clarifying that
point.
“ICE officials stated that the objective of the program
is to address serious crime, such as narcotics smuggling committed by
removable aliens; however ICE has not documented this objective in
program materials,” the report said, adding that some local law
enforcement agencies “used 287(g) authority to process individuals for
minor crimes, such as speeding, contrary to the objective of the
program.”
The report also states that, although the detainees
are only supposed to be processed for deportation “in connection with a
conviction of a state or federal offense,” that matter is only
mentioned in seven out of 29 memoranda of agreement between ICE and
local law enforcement agencies.
Barnes said that very
ambiguity is why he has not yet signed a memorandum of understanding
with ICE. He said the federal government has asked the Guilford County
Sheriff’s Office to use 287(g) authority specifically in areas where
Latinos congregate and question people in the field about their
immigration status — which he would not be comfortable with. “The
issues we’ve got is that US ICE out of Washington wanted something
different,” Barnes said. “That’s why it hasn’t happened. I want to make
sure it’s fair and equitable across the board. I’m not going to
overextend myself. As far as what we will look for and what it will
cover, this is not a witch hunt; it’s not a fishing expedition.”
While
immigrant advocates cite the hardship on families when an adult is
detained and deported for committing a minor offense, the GAO report
suggests the program could also strain the network of detention
centers.
“While participating agencies are not prohibited from
seeking the assistance of ICE for aliens arrested for minor offenses,
if all the participating agencies used their 287(g) authority to
process for removal aliens who have committed minor offenses, ICE would
not have the detention space to detain all the aliens referred to
them,” the report states.
Citing an Associated Press report
that found that 19,000 of 32,000 immigrants held in ICE detention
centers, many of them private, have not been convicted of a crime,
Sills said after the forum: “This is exactly like the old thing in
Alabama and Mississippi when the farmer, the mine owner says, ‘I need
fifty niggers to harvest the crops and haul out the coal,’ and the
sheriff would go arrest 50 black people. There was no 287(g) program
before there were these private, for-profit detention centers.”
The
report released by the ACLU of North Carolina and UNC-Chapel Hill
condemned the program, stating, “287(g) is utilized not as a tool to
aid law enforcement, but instead as a localized immigration weapon and
tool for intimidation of foreign nationals and Hispanic residents and
citizens.”
The report cited a 2007 interview with Alamance
County Sheriff Terry Johnson by anti-illegal immigration activist Jeff
Rawls to support its contention that 287(g) is often motivated by
prejudice against Latinos rather than genuine desire to apprehend
serious criminals.
Johnson reportedly told Rawls: “Being a
resident of Alamance County, I’ve seen a massive change in the
population of the county which is automatically overburdening the
taxpayers. And I began to notice… that a large amount of our
population… was in fact foreignborn, illegal, criminal immigrants who
had come to settle in Alamance County… and that our services that were…
supposed to be providing to our taxpaying citizens were being cut short
simply because we had to be responding to a lot of criminal, illegal
immigrants here in Alamance County.”
Close to the end of the
April 1 forum in Greensboro, the Rev. Sills asked Sheriff Barnes if he
would be willing to have a citizen review committee oversee the
Guilford County 287(g) program.
“Doctor, with what we’re
seeing here and the concerns of the community,” Barnes replied, “I
don’t think that would be a bad idea at all.”
Greensboro immigration lawyer Gerry Chapman (left) questions Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes and Greensboro police Chief Tim Bellamy (right) during an April 1 forum on the 287(g) program that was held at Iglesia Cristiana International. (photo by Jordan Green)
