Wake jail to look for illegal aliens

The commissioners vote to add 12 deputies for screening. Critics warn of racial profiling and immigrants' fear of aiding police.

Wake Sheriff Donnie Harrison will get a dozen new officers to check the immigration status of those booked into the county jail and coordinate with federal authorities to deport those here illegally.

The Wake commissioners voted 7-0 Monday to grant the sheriff the new full-time positions. The operation is expected to cost the county $629,316 in the first year.

Similar programs are already running in four North Carolina counties, and several more are working to implement local initiatives to enforce federal immigration laws.

Civil libertarians and Latino groups have expressed concern that the programs will encourage racial profiling. Even many law enforcement officials have said such efforts could prove counterproductive as people worried about their immigration status stop providing information to local police.

Harrison dismissed such objections Monday, stressing that only those arrested will be subject to the immigration check.

"You're going to have some advocacy groups out here, no matter what you do, who want to make money, create a stir and make us look like we're the bad guys," Harrison said. "My concern is for the safety of the citizens of this county, regardless of who they are or where they come from."

Ideally, the sheriff said, federal dollars would pay to perform what has historically been a federal responsibility. In the absence of such federal resources, he said, spending the money is a good investment for Wake County taxpayers.

"We have people who come to our jail who are committing crimes that we don't have a clue whether they're giving us the right name, especially if they were born outside the United States," Harrison said. "This person could have committed murder in Texas or Arizona, they could be wanted on drug violations, child molestation. We want to know who we have in our jail."

6% in Mecklenburg

A similar operation in Mecklenburg County under way since last year found that about 6 percent of those booked into jail were illegal immigrants. Harrison expects roughly the same percentage to be identified in his jail, potentially nabbing about 3,000 people a year.

With Monday's approval from the commissioners, the Wake Sheriff's Office will now seek a formal agreement with federal authorities to allow county personnel to identify, process and detain immigration offenders. Harrison said federal grants will pay for the computers and fingerprint scanners needed to tie into the federal immigration database.

Harrison said he hoped the program would be in place within six months.

Calls to the Raleigh Police Department seeking comment on the sheriff's new initiative did not receive a response. Last month, the association representing the chiefs of police for the nation's largest cities issued a statement opposing a proposed federal law that would require their officers to enforce immigration laws.

Marisol Jimenez McGee, advocacy director for the statewide Latino organization El Pueblo, said the program is a bad idea.

"Folks are going to feel they can't turn to local law enforcement when they are victims of crime or witnesses to crime because they will be afraid it will lead to their and their family's deportation," McGee said. "Not only does that make immigrant communities unsafe, but it makes all of our communities unsafe."

McGee said assurances, such as those made by Harrison, that only those arrested would be subject to immigration screening have not turned out to be the case in other counties.

"The reality is that when its actually applied in the field and in the jails," she said, "people are being stopped for misdemeanor traffic violations that are then leading to checks of their immigration status."