Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Herbert Gears: Pulling double duty on immigration, crime
Irving has developed an innovative solution
05:58 AM CDT on Monday, July 9, 2007
What if communities could find an effective, legal way to remove illegal immigrants and reduce crime at the same time?
And what if communities could do this without significant investments of money and manpower and without compromising the image of the city or the morale of its residents, visitors and businesses?
The city of Irving has done just that with its 24/7 Criminal Alien Program, created in September with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. To determine the residency status of prisoners, Irving detention officers worked with ICE agents, who made daily visits to the jail to interview suspected criminal aliens. Those identified as illegal were immediately removed for deportation.
Irving began removing criminal aliens at the rate of 50 or more a month – a huge increase over the four per month identified prior to the partnership.
This spring, Irving detention officers began completing the initial screening process and setting up telephone interviews between suspects and ICE officials. With this simple yet effective process change, Irving was able to determine the residency status of every prisoner 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
This transformed a successful program into a round-the-clock initiative with even greater returns: Irving now identifies and removes more than 130 illegal immigrants a month – a 250 percent increase over 2006.
In May, Rep. Pete Sessions formally recognized the Irving Police Department and the city of Irving for these innovative efforts. In June, the city was invited to participate as a keynote speaker at the 11th annual U.S.-Mexico Congressional Border Issues Conference in Washington, D.C., to highlight the program's effectiveness in addressing the problem of criminal illegal immigrants. The Irving City Council voted unanimously June 14 to formally adopt the 24/7 Criminal Alien Program initiative.
What is unique about this program is that it operates within current laws and utilizes existing resources – without costing additional money, time or staffing resources. It allows the city and Police Department to play an active role in the enforcement of immigration laws.
While the program helps safeguard the residents and businesses in Irving, it has also helped project a positive image of the city, which, in turn, has enhanced community morale and economic vitality.
Locally, it is up to each city to find new ways to tackle the immigration problem that build collaboration, tap into existing resources and increase the safety, security and happiness of residents and businesses.
We also must encourage our lawmakers to increase funding for ICE to ensure that partnerships like ours can thrive and be expanded into other communities.
The original link to the article written by Herbert Gears the mayor of Irving:
Herbert Gears: Pulling double duty on immigration, crime | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Opinion: Viewpoints (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-gears_09edi.ART.State.Edition1.4364b89.html - broken link)
At least this city has found the strength and strategy to try and eradicate this perennial U.S. nightmare...
Herbert Gears: Pulling double duty on immigration, crime
Irving has developed an innovative solution
05:58 AM CDT on Monday, July 9, 2007
What if communities could find an effective, legal way to remove illegal immigrants and reduce crime at the same time?
And what if communities could do this without significant investments of money and manpower and without compromising the image of the city or the morale of its residents, visitors and businesses?
The city of Irving has done just that with its 24/7 Criminal Alien Program, created in September with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. To determine the residency status of prisoners, Irving detention officers worked with ICE agents, who made daily visits to the jail to interview suspected criminal aliens. Those identified as illegal were immediately removed for deportation.
Irving began removing criminal aliens at the rate of 50 or more a month – a huge increase over the four per month identified prior to the partnership.
This spring, Irving detention officers began completing the initial screening process and setting up telephone interviews between suspects and ICE officials. With this simple yet effective process change, Irving was able to determine the residency status of every prisoner 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
This transformed a successful program into a round-the-clock initiative with even greater returns: Irving now identifies and removes more than 130 illegal immigrants a month – a 250 percent increase over 2006.
In May, Rep. Pete Sessions formally recognized the Irving Police Department and the city of Irving for these innovative efforts. In June, the city was invited to participate as a keynote speaker at the 11th annual U.S.-Mexico Congressional Border Issues Conference in Washington, D.C., to highlight the program's effectiveness in addressing the problem of criminal illegal immigrants. The Irving City Council voted unanimously June 14 to formally adopt the 24/7 Criminal Alien Program initiative.
What is unique about this program is that it operates within current laws and utilizes existing resources – without costing additional money, time or staffing resources. It allows the city and Police Department to play an active role in the enforcement of immigration laws.
While the program helps safeguard the residents and businesses in Irving, it has also helped project a positive image of the city, which, in turn, has enhanced community morale and economic vitality.
Locally, it is up to each city to find new ways to tackle the immigration problem that build collaboration, tap into existing resources and increase the safety, security and happiness of residents and businesses.
We also must encourage our lawmakers to increase funding for ICE to ensure that partnerships like ours can thrive and be expanded into other communities.
The original link to the article written by Herbert Gears the mayor of Irving:
Herbert Gears: Pulling double duty on immigration, crime | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Opinion: Viewpoints (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-gears_09edi.ART.State.Edition1.4364b89.html - broken link)
At least this city has found the strength and strategy to try and eradicate this perennial U.S. nightmare...
so you take the criminals out of jail and give them the opportunity to come back over the border illegally, which obviously wasnt a problem for them initially? i feel unsafer already.
so you take the criminals out of jail and give them the opportunity to come back over the border illegally, which obviously wasnt a problem for them initially? i feel unsafer already.
So what do we do then... Leave them in our jails or prisons for the rest of there lives and our lives..? Are you going to or are you prepared to pay the bill..? Remember we all need to work together to tackle this menace.
If you are a true Ghost you may want to start helping too. You could start by asking all you're other friends, i.e., ghosts, freaks, witches, goblins and etc. to hang around the U.S. Mexican border. I however don't want to imagine the spooky feeling out there in the desert, woods and shrubs, at night or day if those things were to lurk around. But it may be the perfect deterrent to any would be illegal border crosser.
How about we secure the borders and let the illegals who are already here stay here. Too much money would be spent hunting down all those 40 something illegal immigrants in the U.S. Why not put that money to secure the border to prevent future people from coming in? We seem to be doing fine with the ones we have now.
How about we secure the borders and let the illegals who are already here stay here. Too much money would be spent hunting down all those 40 something illegal immigrants in the U.S. Why not put that money to secure the border to prevent future people from coming in? We seem to be doing fine with the ones we have now.
How about we raise taxes to pay for immediate deportation of all illegals? I for one would support it. What if we confiscated all of the property that was obtained while residing in our country illegally? If a person is caught selling drugs the government has a right to seize all possessions. This helps fund the war on drugs. We could have a similar program to combat the war on illegal immigration.
The best thing to do is to make life sufficiently unpleasant for illegals that they self-deport. Rounding them up is very expensive and will clog the immigration courts, unless measures are taken to make it less attractive to fight the system.
Opportunistic deportation (e.g. apprehension during routine traffic stops or when interacting with the government) helps create a climate of fear amongst the unwanted populations. It also makes it harder for them to put down roots in America by signing up for welfare, applying for a driver's license, or buying a home. They have gotten extremely brazen in recent years and need to be put back in their place.
Strong enforcement of employment laws and proactive detection of bogus SS numbers will reduce the number of job opportunities.
How about we secure the borders and let the illegals who are already here stay here. Too much money would be spent hunting down all those 40 something illegal immigrants in the U.S. Why not put that money to secure the border to prevent future people from coming in? We seem to be doing fine with the ones we have now.
We are hunting them down now by ICE every day in L.A., and will continue.
They will deport on their own when they cannot get a job. Eisenhower and hoover did it, so can we. We are doing very very bad with illegals here for many reasons, some businesses are doing well but citizens have had it with illegals massive numbers causing us severe finanical troubles and this will only get worse till they are gone. A few other severe illegal troubles we have are medical, educational and social security and not least criminality. Every single person in a city not ruined by illegal immigration must know it's coming their way!
so you take the criminals out of jail and give them the opportunity to come back over the border illegally, which obviously wasnt a problem for them initially? i feel unsafer already.
Don't faint gost, but I agree with you! A convicted criminal is a convicted criminal and deserves to stay in jail, period!!! I don't want a convicted criminal "deported" just so he can turn around and come right back into this country!
The best thing to do is to make life sufficiently unpleasant for illegals that they self-deport. Rounding them up is very expensive and will clog the immigration courts, unless measures are taken to make it less attractive to fight the system.
Opportunistic deportation (e.g. apprehension during routine traffic stops or when interacting with the government) helps create a climate of fear amongst the unwanted populations. It also makes it harder for them to put down roots in America by signing up for welfare, applying for a driver's license, or buying a home. They have gotten extremely brazen in recent years and need to be put back in their place.
Strong enforcement of employment laws and proactive detection of bogus SS numbers will reduce the number of job opportunities.
I have to agree.
And those few illegal immigrants who stay under the radar will likely receive amnesty after paying a fine, etc. once the majority of illegals have self deported.
Frankly: as anti illegal immigration I am, having say, 25-50K in Az beats the heck out of ca. 500K.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
