Immigration Community Conference: recap

On April 6, the Weiss Fellows helped run a community conference on immigration issues, a conference that we have been directly involved with for several months now.  The conference was entitled  Community Impacts of Local Policy Responses to Undocumented Immigration and was held on a Sunday afternoon at the FedEx Global Education Center here in Chapel Hill.  The conference drew about 150 people and received positive press coverage in periodicals such as the "Taking a Hard Look at a Tough Problem" in the Herald-Sun.

North Carolina is the state with the fastest growing Latino population in the United States.  A portion of this population consists of undocumented immigrants.  The United States has been grappling with immigration issues in recent years, but with failure of comprehensive national immigration reform in the summer of 2007 immigration issues have become increasingly localized.  In a state like North Carolina with a fast growing Latino and immigrant populations, these issues are even more prevalent.

The main focus of the immigration conference was on the use of several counties in North Carolina of the 287(g) clause of the 1996 federal Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act.  According to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) website: 287(g)  "authorizes the secretaty of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to enter into agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies, permitting designated officers to perform immigration law enforcement functions, pursuant to a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), provided that these officers receive appropriate training and function under the supervision of sworn U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers."  What this means is that counties can enter into agreements with DHS that allows state and local law enforcement officers to perform immigration law enforcement functions including determining immigration status and beginning the deportation process.

As of this spring five counties in North Carolina have agreements with the Department of Homeland Security that allows designated officers to perform immigration law enforcement functions.  These counties are: Alamance County, Mecklenberg County, Cabarrus County, and Gaston County.  Wake, Henderson, and Cumberland Counties are pursuing agreements with DHS.  North Carolina, it is safe to say, is leading the country with the local enforcement of federal immigration laws.

The conference was initiated to bring a greater focus to these issues and recent developments within the state.  Despite its somewhat prevalent use, the 287(g) program is often difficult to understand.  When promoted, it is typically couched as a way to deport criminals who are also illegal immigrants.  However, when it comes to its implementation, 287(g) is often used during routine traffic stops or even more benign situations.  This Raleigh News and Observer article: "Traffic Charges Can Bring Deportation" provides a decent overview to the complexities of these issues.

As far as the conference went, I thought it was very valuable to learn more about immigration issues in the United States and North Carolina.  Most of the participants and audience members seemed to be sympathetic to the difficulties faced by the immigrant population.  It probably would have been even more helpful to have some presenters who were advocates of the 287(g) program.  A continuing dialogue on the appropriate policy responses to undocumented immigration is essential.  With even more counties set to implement 287(g) the local enforcement of federal immigration laws will only become a more prominent and prevalent issue.  An examination of the the full ramifications of these kinds of programs is certainly warranted and needed.