Where Should Undocumented Criminals Go?

This Entry is in response to the comments below by subscriber Nicole. Thank you Nicole for making the connection.

This is what you wrote:
"U claim that u want criminals off the street, if not deported where do u suggest illegal alien criminals go..'cause either way tax payer's $ is going to be spent..yes families are going to be disrupted , that is why as adults we should think of consequences when we do certain things..also aren't victims families get disrupted/destroyed when act of violence is committed to their loved ones ?"

Nicole,

Great question. And I think it is a question that reaches to the heart of the platform message the Mayor and Chief are trying to convey. How do we get violent non-documented criminals out of our community? The question I would ask back to everyone as we try to come to this conclusion is "what is currently not working in the "system" such that a non-documented violent criminal is able to return to the community after getting out of jail?"

I interviewed an individual that is supportive of 287g coming to Suffern. And, he works in our jail system (County, I think). He told me that even when an undocumented violent criminal serves out their sentence for their violent crime, that a deportation warrant is waiting to be executed upon their release from prison. In essence, they "do the time for their crime", then it's back to the country of your origin once your jail time is served. HOWEVER, he told me that when the jail system calls the immigration agency (ICE) to pick up the criminals for deportation, 90% of the time (I'm guessing a little lower) they tell him that they are unable to afford the resources (personnel) necessary to pick up the detainees. The final instruction set from U.S. Immigration is to "let them go."

So sometimes, 287g feels like filling a car up with gas that has a huge hole in the gas tank. Suffern can identify violent non-documented criminals and put them in jail, and even under 287g, prepare them for deportation. But, deportation may not even happen because the Federal government is financially extended into the war (3 Trillion Dollars Spent), bailing out a crashing economy, food shortages, real estate meltdown, natural disasters, $4 gas, energy outages, and a planet that is warming, etc.

Additionally, the jail system is TOTALLY LIABLE for the health care and mental well being of each detainee. Just like Guantanamo Bay (the only example of socialized health care in the US). In addition to this, many jail systems would have to build extensions onto their facilities to even facilitate the additional detainees (tax dollars). Do you think 287g will end in Suffern? So why has Suffern decided to SUE the Rockland County Correctional facility (I think I heard this) for not taking our immigrant detainees resulting from our need to implement the 287g program? And how much money is this going to cost us in legal fees, and who is this going to tick off in the long run? Even the Ramapo Sherrif is totally against 287g in Suffern.

What I do know is that most everything we need to begin the deportation process (database access, a hotline to ICE, current jail facilities, etc.) is already in place. And, when all is said and done, I think the misconception is that 287G will actually facilitate the removal of these violent criminals from our community. And even if 287g creates a larger network of ICE agents to police non-documented violent criminals (not illegal immigrantation in general), then who is going to pay for the shipment of the criminals when the government says it cannot pick them up? Suffern (our taxes)? Our jail system (our taxes)?

And then there is the tragedy of abusive deportation issues popping up everywhere. We will save this for another discussion, but aligning with 287g puts Suffern in that light immediately. And, when you realize that 25% of violent crime in Suffern was created by illegal immigrants, and that all violent crime came to 4 occurances (1 out of 4 - 25%), and that crime is decreasing overall, you have to ask yourself if implementing 287g is the smart move? Also, we heard that the "peeping tom" incident in the ball fields was a minor (17 or under), another area that 287g is not very clear on.

Where should we send non-documented violent criminals? We have found that most everything is in place to deport violent non-documented criminals. How has suffern been doing it over the years? What has really changed in the last couple of years to warrant something like 287g? Doesn't it feel like the acceleration 287g in Suffern is going be a long, expensive, legal journey that will ultimately lead to some inevitable broken link in the process. And what seems ironic in all of this is that a few Latinos have been afraid to report crime or issues that concern them based on their current connection to the police and Suffern government. So, is it possible that 287g is actually hindering the aprehension of criminals by removing the trust factor with a segmnent of our community that has eyes and ears all hours of the day?

NIcole, the last part of your posting discussed the families of the victims. People make bad decisions and people get really hurt. Things like drunk driving and then hitting a house swirls a mixture of emotions in our community. Yet, I would like to think that a totally cohesive community removes the types of pressure and personal pain that cause people to harm others by making bad decisions. Anyway, thank you for contributing to the dialog and listening to my very LONG response. I think it got a tad off track. Let us know if we did not answer this to your satisfaction. By the way, Community Power meetings every other Wednesday. It's not just about Latinos! It's about the power of the community collective.

Community Power