Beaufort County Sheriff's Office request for immigration powers in limbo

It's been about a year since the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office sought to be the state's first law enforcement agency authorized to identify illegal immigrants and put them on a path to deportation. Now, though, it's unclear if any progress has been made toward obtaining those powers.

"It's going to take as long as it takes for both agencies to work it out," said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Michael Gilhooly. ICE, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, administers the voluntary law enforcement program, often referred to as 287(g) after the section of a 1996 federal law that created it.

Typically, local law enforcement officers cannot enforce federal immigration laws and must refer those cases to backlogged ICE agents. But local law enforcement officers trained under 287(g) can check illegal immigrants against federal databases, enter information in those databases and charge violators of immigration law, which can lead to deportation.

Sheriff P.J. Tanner and Beaufort County Detention Center director Phil Foot met with ICE two weeks ago to discuss the program, but came away with little to report.

Gilhooly said his agency does not comment on the status of outstanding requests and that there is no typical timeline for the program to get up and running.

The immigration enforcement duties of officers trained under 287(g) would be secondary to their normal law enforcement roles, meaning an unrelated criminal act would trigger immigration-related action. The officers would not be proactively seeking illegal immigrants.

The program has greatly expanded in the last year. There are about 70 pending requests and 33 law enforcement agencies active in the program, Gilhooly said Wednesday, up from 30 pending requests and seven active agencies in December 2006. A total of 597 officers have been trained in the program, resulting in 26,000 arrests. The cost for new technology and training from ICE would come out of local budgets.

Gilhooly would not say if there is a waiting list or some method to prioritize law enforcement agencies' requests, but said local infrastructure plays a role. He declined to elaborate. He said he is not aware of any outright rejections.

Tanner said the persistent crowding of the county jail may be a factor. The jail, built for 255 inmates, had 313 on Wednesday, Foot said. Of them, 24 were suspected illegal immigrants, Foot said. It costs about $60 a day to house an inmate.