Published: March 3, 2009
NEW YORK TIMES
"PHOENIX — A government report questions the effectiveness of a federal program,
long criticized by immigrant advocacy groups, that deputizes police officers as immigration
agents.
"The report, prepared by the Government
Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, says the
government has failed to determine how many of the thousands of people deported
under the program were
the kind of violent felons it was devised to root out. [...]
"The report
analyzed 29 of the 67 local law enforcement agencies in the program. It found
that they arrested 43,000 illegal immigrants last year, including 34,000 taken
into custody by the immigration bureau.
"Of the 34,000, the report said,
about 41 percent were put in removal proceedings, 44 percent waived their right
to a hearing and were immediately deported, and 15 percent were released for
reasons including humanitarian grounds, the “minor nature of their crime” and
their having been sentenced to prison.
"Citing lapses in data
collection, the G.A.O. was unable to determine how many of the arrested
immigrants were suspected of committing serious crimes."
READ MORE: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/us/04immigrants.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y
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