Arepas and Gravy

Gwinnett County finally got their supreme wish today –the 287(g) Program. Basically, 287(g) allows law enforcement to act as immigration officials and start deportation proceedings for anyone they happen to detain who turns out to be illegal.

Actually, scratch that. 287(g) is designed to weed out specific classes of violent criminals, but has actually been used to arrest and deport people for offenses such as a non-working brake light or spitting in public. (Think I’m making that up? That’s not my data. That’s from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) – under the Bush administration.)

These are not toys

That’s all well and good, you say. Why should that be a problem? Someone was here illegally, they committed a crime and didn’t respect the laws of our country, so send ‘em packing. And I’m all for that. Do you think I want more child molesters and armed robbers here? Of course not!

But – wait for it – guess what? You are never going to believe this. There are some redneck law enforcement officials out there who use 287(g) as an excuse to detain people based on race alone. No way, right? Sorry to burst your bubble there, but Officer Friendly has a quota to meet, you know.

It’s no coincidence that another 287(g) county, the Notorious C.O.B.B., was recently cited in an ACLU report for a pattern of flagrant racial profiling.

From the AJC:

According to one account, “Federico” was stopped for having a malfunctioning brake light on a Saturday afternoon while driving home with his family from a trip to the park. He was arrested for driving without a license and spent 18 days in jail. The report doesn’t state which police department made the arrest.

And that’s just one story. I have tons from my friends – ALL HERE LEGALLY.

For example, Señor – here legally – was once stopped by a police officer for walking along the road. Never mind the fact that in Venezuela, people walk all the time. Walking is good for the soul. And he couldn’t afford a car (probably due to the outrageous amount of money it takes to come to this country legally.)

Coffee – also here legally – had it even worse. She was happily driving along in Gwinnett County one day and found herself in the middle of a round up. Brown people drove by, they got pulled over to the side of the road. She watched this happen. She eventually got to go, but not without a bunch of hassle, including demands to produce her papers as if she were at a military check point. (Get a clue – immigration papers are very important. While an immigrant will carry his ID and work permit around with him, the rest of the papers are going to stay at home in a safe place. Nobody is going to produce their papers on command.)

Further, I wrote a radio news piece back in March about Government Accountability Office (GAO) findings that Cobb County’s 287(g) program was being improperly supervised. Law enforcement took it upon themselves to expand the parameters of the program to include the aforementioned non-serious crimes like spitting in public as an excuse to detain and deport people.  Guess how much money this program costs your counties, Republicans?

Gwinnett’s Sheriff, Bitch Conway (did I spell that right? Eh, fact checking schmact checking, ain’t that right, Conway?), actually told reporters that he doesn’t much care to enforce the law as it is written. Which, you know, is always a desirable quality in an elected law enforcement official.

The AJC again (via the Associated Press, of course):

“We’ve got a huge problem with illegal immigrants in Gwinnett … and it’s eating up a lot of my budget just processing and housing them [in the jail] once they get arrested,” said Gwinnett Sheriff Butch Conway.

If they are deported before they are tried for less serious crimes, so be it, Conway said.

It’s just “as well we get rid of them as try them [for charges] and spend money on them,” he said.

So yeah, now when we go to Cobb County, I drive. When we go to Gwinnett County, I drive. It isn’t because Señor is doing anything wrong, it’s because I don’t want him to have to spend 17 days in jail and lose his job because he happens to be a little dark skinned for some redneck cop’s liking.

And folks, I’m not the greatest driver in the world.

You’re welcome to argue these points with me in the comments, but make sure your argument is well researched and backed up with facts first, not yanked out of your ass or the Bible and or off the wings of one of those pin-dancing angels.

Tags: Immigration, Latino Issues

This entry was posted on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 1:57 pm and is filed under Immigration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.