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 Post subject: Tippecanoe County works with ICE to deport illegal criminals
PostPosted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 12:44 pm 
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Joined: Mon Apr 30, 2007 8:30 pm
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YES!!! We need more of this cooperation AND we need to build the wall so they can't waltz right back in! (It's not so easy for the Chinese and Pakistani illegals to reenter once they're deported.) Thank the Tippecanoe County officials for protecting you from criminals and watching out for your tax dollars. Call your Indiana state reps and senators to encourage them to pass state laws that will make it more difficult for illegals to live, work and commit their crimes here.


http://www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a ... 7711130338

A small step in the immigration problem
Local, federal officials dealing with illegals arrested, convicted of crimes
By SOPHIA VORAVONG
svoravong@journalandcourier.com
November 13, 2007

Once a week, an investigator with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement stops by the Tippecanoe County Jail to screen and interview inmates listed as foreign nationals.

His intention is to find those arrested or convicted of crimes that qualify for deportation. Eleven people have been removed this year, according to Sheriff Tracy Brown. Thirty other inmates are on detainer.

"If they're here illegally and committing crimes, they are draining our resources -- law enforcement, the prosecutor's office, judges and clerks," Prosecutor Pat Harrington said.

"If they're deported, in theory they won't be here to reoffend."
Representatives with the Tippecanoe County Prosecutor's Office and Sheriff's Department recently met in Lafayette with immigration officials to see what they can do about illegal immigrants in the justice system.
It's a small step that they hope will address a bigger problem.

Traditionally, immigration issues are handled on the federal level by ICE, formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

"We're dealing with more foreign-born nationals than we were before," Brown said. "Some are from China, some are from Pakistan. The majority are from Mexico.

"Obviously, because we are a university town, we get people who pass through our community from all over the world."

His department has been working with immigration officials for about a year now, sending them lists of offenders to aid in the verification process. A non-U.S. citizen convicted of a felony crime can be deported once his or her sentence here is up.

What local authorities also learned during the meeting is that ICE can investigate and deport immigrants who commit any crime of "dishonesty or moral turpitude," such as theft, burglary, forgery or drug dealing.

Harrington said between 70 and 80 crimes fall under that classification.
ICE also can investigate offenders who commit crimes that are punishable by more than 365 days in prison, even if their actual sentence is for less.
One issue, however, is finding the federal statute that matches the law broken in Indiana.

"If we can get the federal government here in Tippecanoe County enforcing federal law, perhaps that will be a deterrent to not commit more crimes," Harrington said.

"Maybe there will be a secondary deterrent of them not seeking Tippecanoe County as a place to live to commit their crimes."

Ivan Hernandez with the Latino Coalition of Tippecanoe County agrees that illegal immigrants who commit and are convicted of crimes should be deported.

But he also wants to make sure that the offenders have a right to due process and get to meet with their foreign consulate, whether from Mexico or any country.

"The U.S. Constitution, specifically the Bill of Rights, says nothing of due process only being for citizens," Hernandez said. "If they are here committing crimes, they should be deported. But they still have rights."


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