Speech #1090139775

Chairman. the first duty of government is to protect the citizens. The 287(g) program fulfills this duty. This program is a voluntary program that gives State and local enforcement. at their choosing. immigration enforcement training so they can protect their communities. The Nation has 750.000 State and local law enforcement. and they can be an effective force in assisting Federal authorities. The program is voluntary to local police if they choose to help enforce immigration laws. For example. the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. the first in the Nation to enter into a 287(g) agreement. used trained officers to fight terrorism. Alabama has used these agreements to go after a growing human trafficking problem because the Federal ICE presence in Alabama was limited in their State to only three officers. Los Angeles County is looking at the program to help identify and remove criminal aliens from their jails before they are released. This is a major problem as ICE estimates there are a half million criminal aliens in U.S. jails and prisons. and they have not been identified for removal to their countries. Without adequate action. many of these criminals could be released back into the community rather than being deported. A 287 agreement between ICE and local officials could result in more criminal aliens being identified and removed from the United States before they are released from jail and have to be rearrested. Mr. Chairman. as a cochair of the Congressional Victims Right Caucus. crimes committed by people who have no right to be here in the first place are especially troubling to me. especially if we have already had them in custody once. Take into account the following cases: in Lake Worth. Florida. an illegal alien from the Bahamas named Milagro Cunningham took an 8yearold girl to a nearby landfill where he proceeded to sexually assault her. choke her and leave her for dead in a rockfilled trash bin. Cunningham had been arrested three times by Palm Beach County Sheriffs Department prior to the incident and not once was his immigration investigated. If Palm Beach County Sheriffs Department had the authority under 287(g) and an agreement been in place. his status could have been verified and then turned over to Federal immigration for his removal from this country. Angel Resendez. the notorious railroad killer. who sits now on Texas death row for 14 murders he committed in the United States. he came to this country illegally from Mexico. And during his killings.