States, locals swamp immigration program
By Daniel C. Vock
http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3682 and cities that want to speed up deportations of criminals and suspects who are illegal immigrants by using a popular but controversial federal program face waiting up to three years to join the enforcement effort, because the federal government can’t keep up with the demand.
Political pressure for stricter http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3475 of illegal immigration has propelled the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency’s 287(g) initiative from a little-noticed experiment two years ago to one of the hottest ideas for local and state officials to deal with immigration, as broader federal efforts languish.
http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=1257 ranks first as an issue in immigration-related legislation introduced on the state level as of March 2008, according to a report of the National Conference of State Legislatures.At the start of 2007, only eight police agencies took part in the 287(g) program; now a total of 47 police agencies in 17 states participate, with 90 more waiting to sign up. To date, more than 50,000 people have been deported or have been marked for deportation under the 287(g) program, according to ICE. More than half of those were processed since October.
But ICE is short of money to expand the program, which reimburses local police agencies for holding prisoners, pays for a five-week training course for participating officers and provides the technology to allow those police to access federal immigration databases.
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