The incumbents on illegal aliens

Here are the latest quotes from the incumbents, spoken at the League of Women Voters on March 30th. The topic was the illegal alien problem and enforcement:
John Walters: Elgin does every legal thing it can do right now. First of all, every person arrested is screened, we get a profile from the jail, contractors are scrutinized under E-Verify, we E-Verify all of our own people, we have helped out (garbled audio) in certain areas.
The next step folks, they’re going to tell you differently, but the next step is a lawsuit for racial profiling, something the city of Elgin cannot afford.
Comment: Didn't Walters say at our forum that contractors weren't scrutinized because we never had the manpower for it? As for his comments about racial profiling, I hope this doesn't turn out like the shot fired by the council in July of 2004 that began the U46 lawsuit.

Juan Figueroa: I think the city of Elgin has done what has to be done. We had listened to a community organization in town that was very concerned about illegal immigration. That organization submitted seven proposals. Out of those seven we passed at least two important ones. The first one is having better communication with the ICE, basically report I would say having better reporting, that we are holding at the jail, city jail. So those are better communication with ICE and also the booking at the city jail. I think that’s what we need to do. In order to do it better we need to continue enhancing that relationship with ICE.
Comment: It sounds like he's not particularly impatient with ICE.

Bob Gilliam: When it comes to illegal immigration I was approached, along with Dave Kaptain, by AFLA to talk about what we could do about immigration. And we met with AFLA and on behalf of the city council we agreed to do all the things that John Walters indicated. After our meeting with them and passing those new regulations we’ve done everything legal that you can do under the law. If you look at AFLA’s website you’ll see where Dave White said that he’s happy that the city took an interest, he’s happy with what the city is doing toward illegal immigration. This is on their website and I have some copies for you outside. They were happy with that, and with ICE. You cannot make ICE do anything. Have you ever tried to get the federal government to do something? You can’t do it. We’ve asked them to come. If they say no, what do we do? We have a relationship with ICE. We work with them. They take the people that we refer to them. They do a good job for us so far. You cannot make ICE do anything. You can’t make the federal government respond. It’s just impossible.
Comment: I think Mr. Gilliam is making reference to this statement on our website. We were pleased to see some action at the time. Our enthusiasm waned as we saw the actual implementation. At the time (January 2008) we wrote:
"This is a big step for the city. We are grateful for their announcement and look forward to seeing these initiatives enforced. AFLA plans to monitor their compliance in these matters.We are particularly interested in the outcome of the ICE ACCESS meeting. It could be significant (we hope so) or simply a rehash of programs we already have. As you know 287g is an ICE ACCESS program as well as the CAP officer. It would be great to see either of these programs implemented."
Here's another interesting warning from AFLA about ICE ACCESS:
http://elginlegalamericans.blogspot.com/search?q=chinese+menu
We must say here and now that Bob Gilliam and Dave Kaptain were the two council members who would talk to us. Gilliam deserves some credit for that.

Note: I apologize for any misquoting here. The sound system was terrible. I think I accurately represented the remarks.

A Chinese Menu

Doug sent this e-mail to the mayor and city council...
We’ve seen articles in the Courier News, Daily Herald and Chicago Tribune recently about ICE ACCESS. We are pleased to hear Elgin elected officials willing to do something, ANYTHING, about criminal illegal aliens in town.

But ICE ACESS is getting way more credit than it deserves. It is essentially a Chinese Menu of all the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) services local agencies might want to use. Nothing more. It is not a program at all; It is a list of the programs ICE has to offer.

Well, maybe it isn’t a menu really. With a menu, you get to order what you want. In contrast, with ICE ACCESS they tell you what you can have. “No soup for you!”

Try it yourself. When you sit down with them to discuss ICE ACCESS, point to the CAP officer option and tell them you want one of those. They will say, “That program is for state prisons and county jails. You can’t have a CAP.”

Here’s Elgin’s answer to that. Ask them, “What does Angel Garcia do at ICE?” They probably won’t know the answer. You can tell them, “Angel Garcia, a federal immigration enforcement officer, works full-time at the Costa Mesa city jail, checking the immigration status of each arrestee.” (from Orange County Register 12/17/07) Be sure to emphasize the word “CITY” so they understand you.

Maybe they’ll offer you support with your customs problem, or your border control, or maybe even intellectual property rights. Those would be useful here. NOT!

You could use some help training officers in spotting bogus documents.

As for two rather useful menu items, the Law Enforcement Support Center and Operation Community Shield, there is nothing new about them. Elgin is very familiar with them. We already know about them and are using them.

I guess the main question Marty Price can answer for you is, “So what is new about ICE ACCESS?”

And the real question ought to be, “Do you have 287g forms with you?”