287(g)

It looks as if it’s coming to Manatee County.  What is it?

Florida Immigrant Coalition has recently posted a link to an article about 287(g), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) program that allows local law enforcement to target and arrest “criminal illegal aliens.”  

There are many problems with this program.  

1.  As the article states, the programs largest impact has been on “day-laborers, corn-vendors and people with broken tail-lights.”  Terrorists and criminals are not being rounded up.  Mostly just people who are living here undocumented.

2.  Also as the article states, lack of proper documentation is not a crime (in the strictest sense of criminal law).  It is a civil immigration violation.

3.  This program is costly.  DHS does not pay for it — tax payers do.  And at what benefit?  Real criminals are not being rounded up. 

4.  It has resulted in racial profiling of Hispanics, which has led many (undocumented, residents, and citizens alike) to live in fear of local police who ought to be protecting them from real criminals.