Illegals get work permits for snitching

A newly revealed law enforcement policy allows illegal immigrants arrested during work-site raids to be released from jail and given work permits in exchange for their testimony against their employers, a House panel was informed Thursday, a tactic one lawmaker described as “de facto amnesty.”

The policy was revealed as Democrats pressed to rein in a federal program that trains state and local police to enforce immigration laws, comparing the popular but contentious program to civil-rights-era police collusion with the Ku Klux Klan.

Marcy Forman, director of the Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) investigative office, defended the work-permit program to the House Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security, saying it “allows the U.S. government to elicit statements of aliens in our custody” to pursue criminal cases against companies that knowingly employ and mistreat illegal immigrants.

“ICE intends to fully utilize its investigative resources and tools and is authorized to investigate and prove cases against employers. We are utilizing all tools available,” Ms. Forman said.

The ICE policy angered some House Republicans, who questioned Ms. Forman and other Homeland Security officials about a raid in February at a Yamato Engine plant in Bellingham, Wash., and the subsequent release last week of 24 illegal immigrants who were issued the work permits and allowed to remain in the U.S.

“Questionable enforcement practices such as these send a decidedly mixed message and effectively put illegal immigrants at the front of the employment line,” said Rep. Harold Rogers of Kentucky, the ranking Republican on the subcommittee.

The Bellingham Herald reported that the majority of the illegal immigrants were released with documents advising them “that per the assistant United States attorney assigned to this case, all persons involved with the Yamato Engine Specialists … should be afforded the benefit of deferred action and an employment authorization document, valid for the duration of this case.”

The illegal immigrants were screened to ensure they do not present a threat to the U.S., and must check in weekly with an ICE agent.

While Democrats on the panel defended this program, which subcommittee Chairman David E. Price of North Carolina described as “long-standing,” other Democrats aimed their sights on the George W. Bush-era program that trains state and local police to enforce federal immigration laws.

Across the country, 67 communities have signed agreements, including some in the Washington region, and several dozen other communities are seeking to join the program, known as 287(g) because of the section of federal law that governs it.

“The federal government has a duty, just as we did when local law enforcement colluded with the Ku Klux Klan many years ago, to intervene and protect individual rights against local law enforcement if they are violating such rights,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler, New York Democrat, said at a joint hearing before two House Judiciary subcommittees.

Even though he wasn’t present - Democrats did not invite him to testify - Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County in Arizona was clearly targeted in the joint hearing. By his own acknowledgment, Sheriff Arpaio has become the “poster boy” for local enforcement of immigration laws.

One of the witnesses was George Gascon, chief of the Mesa, Ariz., police department, which is in Sheriff Arpaio’s jurisdiction. Chief Gascon, who opposes the raids, painted a picture of law enforcement overstepping, using SWAT-type teams to round up illegal immigrants including in a raid on Mesa’s city hall.

On one occasion, he said, he had to deploy his own officers to separate pro-raid and anti-raid demonstrators at the site of a raid. Chief Gascon said a focus on immigration is hurting Maricopa County’s efforts to fight other crimes.

“They’re not concentrating on local crime issues, and that is why their crime stats are going as high as they are,” he said.

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