Sheriff’s office a ‘force multiplier’ for ICE

Published 6:48 pm Monday, October 19, 2009

An illegal alien fugitive from California had been on the run from U.S. marshals for 19 years on felony charges before he arrived at the Whitfield County Jail — where the proverbial long arm of the law finally stopped him cold, authorities said.

For around a year now, the Whitfield sheriff’s office has been part of the federal Immigrations and Custom Enforcement’s 287(g) program — an effort to “improve public safety by prioritizing criminal aliens who are a threat to local communities … and providing a force multiplier for ICE’s immigration enforcement efforts across the country,” according to ICE.

Last week, ICE said it is now partnering with 67 state and local law enforcement agencies, including a renewal with Whitfield County.

“It helps us identify (illegal) aliens in custody, and our officers are able to act as ICE agents and be force multipliers for them,” said Lt. Wesley Lynch with the sheriff’s office, who supervises the 287(g) program and heads up the detention division at the jail. “Our detention officers are trained the same way as ICE agents.”

Lynch said currently there are seven detention officers at the jail who are trained in the identification of illegal aliens on a regular basis. The program, known as 287(g) for the section where it is found in federal law, gives jailers access to the ICE database. If ICE information indicates the suspect is in the country illegally, the suspect will be booked into the ICE system and a hold will be placed.

“One officer does this full time and does most of the processing, and it can be very time-consuming,” Lynch said. “We have not received any additional resources for this program, but have made do with personnel we already have in place. We’ve had good success.”

Lynch, who was at a conference in Gainesville on Monday, said there were between 400 to 500 people detained in the jail in the last year who were in the country illegally. He said “most” of those detainees are returned to their country of origin.

He said while ICE depends on illegal alien “sweeps” to define success, the ICE-trained detention officers at the jail “only deal with persons accused of a crime.”

Lynch recommends Leaps TV — the Law Enforcement and Public Safety Channel (www.leaps.tv) — as an online learning site for homeland and border security issues, as well as “table top exercises” that deal with emergency and disaster scenarios.