WASHINGTON — Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins told Congress Tuesday that his agency’s partnership with federal immigration authorities is working — undocumented individuals suspected of being involved in transnational gang activity and violent crime are being removed from the community.
The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Control invited Jenkins for the first in a series of fact-finding hearings to determine whether current federal immigration policies are effective.
“Surely, we can all agree, protecting the public from violence and lawlessness is the preeminent function of government,” said subcommittee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C.
Jenkins, in full uniform, recommended that more communities follow the Frederick County model of close coordination with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Since 2008, ICE has trained certain law enforcement officers to carry out and enforce federal immigration laws. This coordinated effort has ensured the safety of his community, Jenkins said.
“We all know that open-border policies and failure to enforce the laws have impacted public safety in every community in America, and cities are becoming war zones,” he said. “This program has been very effective in the identification, detention and removal of criminal aliens. Through our partnership with ICE, we have effectively built an enforcement wall around Frederick County.”
But critics of the program warned that it perpetuates racial profiling, tears immigrant families apart, and puts broader public safety at risk.
Bishop Minerva Carcaño, of the United Methodist Church’s California-Pacific Conference, said allowing local police to — in effect — serve as immigration enforcement officers has detrimental effects on community safety.
“Community members become reluctant to report a crime that they witness, or are victim to, because they fear police officers will inquire about the immigration status of themselves or their friends, neighbors or family members,” she said.
Some 1,400 people who have committed crimes in Frederick County since the program began, however, have been channeled into removal proceedings, according to Jenkins, a Republican.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement website reports that nearly 316,000 undocumented individuals were removed or returned to their country of origin in 2014.
Ray Garza, a former police officer and chairman of the Frederick Immigration Coalition, said that despite the obvious benefits of targeting serious criminals, local authorities exclude immigrants from their sphere of protection when they work hand-in-glove with federal immigration agencies.
“If I’m undocumented and … my child is missing; do I call the police?” Garza said. “Tomorrow, [the police officer] may knock on my door and say, ‘Hey, put your hands behind your back.’”
“When you pledge to serve and protect, that means everybody,” Garza added.
Jenkins said his department treats everyone equally in the course of its work with ICE.
“Everybody that’s arrested in Frederick, regardless of the crime, the ethnicity, the race, the gender … is asked two very simple questions,” he said. “What country are you a citizen of, and where are you born?”
Any answer other than “the U.S.” initiates an investigation with ICE.
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