Rounding up illegals in Harris County jail

Washington Times:

While Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Phoenix gets all the media attention for his crackdown on illegal immigrants, eight deputies in an unremarkable office at the Harris County Jail are posting similar numbers for deportation -- and doing so without controversy.

Working two per shift, the deputies refer roughly 1,000 suspected illegal immigrants to federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities every month, helping to make the Southern District of Texas by far the busiest in the nation for illegal-immigration prosecutions.

Since joining a federal program in August 2008 that trains local law authorities to enforce immigration law, the sheriff's office has turned up high-level gang members, a suspect wanted for murder in Mexico, and illegal immigrants from countries around the world, Lt. Michael Lindsay said.

Harris County frequently refers more cases in a given month than any other local police agency in the program, he said.

But what makes the Harris County program stand apart is a routine that insulates it from the accusations of profiling that have drawn prominent criticism to programs like that run by Sheriff Arpaio in Maricopa County, Arizona.

Unlike in Maricopa County, Harris County authorities do not run street sweeps in search of illegal immigrants. But they do question everybody booked into the jail about their immigration status.

"We ask everybody, right off the bat, 'Are you legally in the country?' " said Lt. Lindsay, who oversees the team that conducts the questioning. "It doesn't matter what country you're from. It doesn't matter your religion. It doesn't matter the color of your skin. We make everybody go through it."

Fingerprints from all inmates accused of felonies or serious misdemeanors are forwarded automatically to ICE's data center, which can identify matches to prints from immigrants who have had prior dealings with law enforcement.

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Referrals that ICE pursues are prosecuted in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. According to a Syracuse University study based on federal records, the Houston-based court handled nearly 23,000 immigration prosecutions in the first nine months of fiscal 2009 - by far the most of any district court in the country and a projected increase of 22 percent over last year.

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That the number is so high gives you an idea of how big the problem is. As noted the program does not address those illegals who have not broken local laws. I suspect that their number is even greater.

I don't understand why every jail in the country is not doing this. It makes sense from both a local law enforcement matter and on the national level. It provides a consequence for those who come here illegal and then break other laws. It rids the community of those who are committing crimes and can lower the cost of dealing with these people.