ICE ACCESS PARTNERSHIP

A program that allows local police departments to partner with federal immigration authorities

will go down in the history of Danbury, Connecticut as one of the most controversial measures enacted by the city's Common Council.

When it was officially proposed in October 2007, ICE ACCES 287(g) provided state and local law enforcement with the training and subsequent authorization to identify, process, and when appropriate, detain immigration offenders they encounter during their regular, daily law-enforcement activity - for minor and major offenses alike.

On February 6, 2008, immigrant businesses throughout the city shut their doors for the day to protest the proposal, and thousands of people filled the streets surrounding City Hall that evening. After nearly a 4-hour session that included public commentary for and against, the Common Council approved the application by a vote of 19-2.

Common Council Member Paul Rotello, one of the two who voted against the partnership, said officials were not able to review an official, or even proposed, Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) outlining how the program would work. "I didn't want to commit the voters to a contract we didn't completely understand," he stated.

"This program will make sure specifically that the immigrant community is safer," said Mayor Mark Boughton Eighteen months passed with no word on whether Danbury had been accepted into the program or not.

Meanwhile, reports from university researchers, community organizations and police associations across the United States have shown that the 287(g) program can eat up millions of dollars and valuable resources, result in mistakes and racial profiling and does not effectively control illegal immigration after all. In fact, it may make it more difficult for police departments to serve and protect their communities.

A March 2009 report issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that existing 287(g) programs did not have clear goals and objectives and lacked consistent supervision or internal controls, opening the possibility for "straying" from the primary objective of the program, which is "to remove aliens who have committed serious crimes or pose a threat to public safety."

In response to the GAO findings, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano ordered new guidelines and modifications to the program last month.

According to Mayor Mark Boughton, Danbury will be in the second batch of official partnership announcements under the new rules. Once the MOA is signed, two Danbury Police detectives, of the 154 officers on the force, will attend a four-week training program held at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) of the ICE Academy (ICEA) in Charleston, SC.

"They will not be patrol officers," the Mayor emphasized, "Because criminal charges are the priority of the new 287(g), these detectives will deal with the criminal element, as well as be trained to deal with the second component of the crime - the legal status of the offender."

"For instance," explained Boughton, "Having a broken tail light is not a crime - it is a minor offense. You have to have criminal grounds to pursue the charges and then deal with the immigration status."

Change we can believe in?

Among the new provisions for 287(g) programs, local law enforcement must now prioritize immigrants with serious criminal records rather than broadly targeting large numbers of undocumented immigrants with no criminal charges. Other changes include:

* ICE will more closely monitor and supervise the ways in which local police agencies implement their authority to enforce immigration laws.

* ICE will implement a complaint mechanism so that individuals can report problems with the program.

* Local 287(g) partners will be bound by all federal civil rights laws, and they will be required to provide interpretation services for immigrants who do not speak English.

"The revised program was not created to cater to either of the extreme sides of this issue," Mayor Boughton emphasized, adding, "It will not pick up the workers at Kennedy Park, nor will it turn a blind eye to the legal status of someone who robs a bank. This program caters to the 70 percent of the [city's] population that wants a safer community, whether they were born here or not and are here legally or illegally."

The new Agreement, which incorporates changes clarifying the nature and scope of partnership activities, along with the fresh tone coming from the Boughton administration, may provide a chance for counteracting the panic in the community that arose when it was initially introduced.

However, the community erosion caused by the animosity of the public debates last February still lingers.

Elise Marciano, president of the Danbury-based U.S. Citizens for Immigrant and Law Enforcement, a group that strongly advocated for Danbury's participation with ICE, said she was pleased with the partnership approval, but believes the new program doesn't go far enough.

"I would like to see 287(g) where it was. Only going after felons will not deal with the 31 people that were picked up without a license, or the loitering at Kennedy Park, because they are minor offences," said Marciano. "But I guess incrementalism is a great thing - we know the government was not going to do anything profound."

Luis Bautista, President of the Ecuadorian Civic Center in Danbury, says if all the new conditions are actually followed, the immigrant community should not worry. "If we are here to work and provide a better quality of life for our families, and are not getting involved in any criminal activity, we will have nothing to worry about," he said. He did express concern, however, saying, "Even with the new changes, I still fear racial profiling."

Bautista echoes the worries voiced by many Latino activists, which the Obama administration hopes to alleviate.

Earlier this month, ten Latino news media outlets attended a roundtable discussion with the President at the White House. President Obama spoke about the 287(g) program and criticized ICE raids that "create a lot of publicity but don't solve the problem," admitting, "There's still work to do on that issue."

Obama stressed that the government has set new rules and conditions for the program, saying, "We want to focus only on justified raids and controls. We want a reform so the system works better and people are not forced into undocumented status. Some [raids] are less worried about dealing with criminals and more about workers; from now on it will have to be the other way [around]."

Business as usual?

Danbury Police Chief Alan Baker maintains that it has always been the local department's intention to use the 287(g) partnership as an additional tool while investigating criminal activity - not to deport people stopped for traffic violations.

"We've already been working on an informal basis with all of our federal partners," Baker said. "This just formalizes one of those relationships."

And according to Mayor Boughton, "If one is here illegally and they have a problem with the law, eventually, they [immigration] will catch-up to them."

"Almost every week we have 2 or 3 people picked by immigration because they had an 'encounter' with Danbury and the system showed they had failed to appear at court (for deportation hearings, rendering them fugitives) or had committed a crime," he explained.

According to Boughton, the old MOA would have required the Common Council's legislative approval, while the new one doesn't. "In a way, the public debate made the program more complicated that it needed to be," he said, adding that Danbury Police officers go for training with the federal police for an array of issues, "Those are administrative decisions that don't need a vote."

The Mayor also stressed public safety, "I value all working people living in our community. This program will make sure specifically that the immigrant community is safer, because let's face it - a lot of times the undocumented community is the victim of choice for some of these criminals."

The Memorandum of Agreement between the Department of Homeland Security and the City of Danbury has not been made public, since it must be reviewed by the city's legal counsel and its final language agreed upon before the document is signed - a process that could take several weeks. We anxiously await its public release, which will hopefully spell out exactly how the partnership will be monitored and the new guidelines implemented in our community.