Study: Immigration program leads to profiling (WRAL-Raleigh, NC)

Study: Immigration program leads to profiling

Posted: 2/18/09 at 10:52 a.m.

Chapel Hill, N.C. — The federal program that allows local law enforcement to identify illegal immigrants charged with crimes has created a climate of racial profiling, according to a report released Wednesday by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law.

The 287(g) immigration program, administered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, gives local law enforcement agencies access to federal immigration databases so they can identify illegal immigrants they have arrested on local charges.

Wake, Cumberland, Alamance and five other counties already participate in the program, and last year, more than 3,000 illegal immigrants were deported from North Carolina.

In Wake County, more than 1,000 people have been identified through the program, which started last July, Sheriff Donnie Harrison has said.

Orange County is one of several that recently joined a separate ICE program called Secure Communities that doesn't include the deportation training portion of 287(g).

According to the 152-page report, one of the "unexpected and problematic outcomes" of the program is reluctance among illegal immigrants to contact police if they are witnesses to or victims of crime because of the risk of being jailed or deported.

"We found serious erosion of community trust, as well as legal concerns," said Deborah Weissman, director of clinical programs at UNC's School of Law.

There are also concerns that law enforcement officers are targeting people who appear Hispanic for minor traffic offenses, the report states.

When it passed in 1996, the 286(g) program was designed to target terrorists and violent criminals. Based on the UNC study, the program is not being used for its intended purpose.

"The overwhelming number of individuals arrested pursuant to 287(g) and removed pursuant to this program have been arrested for traffic offenses, often driving without a driver's license," Weissman said.

The study, in part, is a result of concerns by the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"North Carolina has become a national testing ground for programs between ICE and local officers," said Rebecca Headen, an attorney with the ACLU's Racial Justice Project. "This report shows North Carolina and the nation the pitfalls of those programs."