Steve Burns: Sheriff Mahoney and his "partners"

Starting in the fall of 2007, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people deported by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from the Dane County Jail. Deportations increased from three in August 2007 to 20 to 30 a month in October and November, and the high pace continues. The reason for the increase is stepped-up enforcement activity by ICE combined with the decision by Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney to question those booked into the jail about their immigration status and to forward this information on to ICE.

The questioning is in violation of a policy established by the County Board which prohibits law enforcement officers and other county officials from questioning residents about immigration status. Law enforcement and public service agencies around the country have long understood that, by becoming an arm of immigration enforcement, they jeopardize their relationship with immigrant communities and make people in these communities reluctant to report crime or participate in investigations, or to seek needed emergency services.

Furthermore, federal law does not require local law-enforcement officials to question those they come in contact with about immigration status. Mahoney's decision to question and report to ICE is strictly voluntary.

So why is Sheriff Mahoney doing this? In an interview with Madison's NBC-15 News on the night of a County Board hearing looking into the practice, Sheriff Mahoney said, "I believe that all law enforcement agencies and partners in the criminal justice system have an obligation to work together."

Since Sheriff Mahoney sees ICE agents has his “partners in the criminal justice system”, it seems fair to ask: What kind of partners are they? When Sheriff Mahoney decides to cooperate with ICE, what exactly is he cooperating with?

Although he may not be aware of it, Sheriff Mahoney's actions make him a “partner” in a plan called “Endgame: Office of Detention and Removal Strategic Plan 2003-2012.” The full text of the plan is available on the website of the Massachusetts ACLU. It lays out in detail how ICE intends to track down and deport all the immigrants to the United States who are living and working here without proper documentation, by the year 2012. That's an estimated 12 million people.

Detaining and removing 12 million people from the United States is a daunting task, to say the least, and the need to meet the ambitious requirements of Endgame explain the increasingly aggressive tactics being used by ICE agents around the country.

In New Haven, Connecticut, just days after the City Council created a new “City ID” card that can be used by any city resident, regardless of immigration status, ICE agents swept through the city at dawn, arresting 29. Here's how New Haven Mayor John DeStefano described the raids: "ICE entered the home with no warrants, they searched every room in the house, they had all the occupants, including the children, gather in the living room, they separated the men from the women and even had the children on the floor.”

Remember, these are the people that Sheriff Mahoney considers his “partners in the criminal justice system.”

In New Bedford, Massachusetts, ICE agents were even more aggressive, rounding up 361 employees of a leather factory and immediately flying them to detention facilities in Texas, separating hundreds of children, many of them US citizens, from their parents. Afterwards, Senator Edward Kennedy said that the agents (Sheriff Mahoney's “partners in the criminal justice system”) “performed disgracefully.”

Perhaps Sheriff Mahoney should choose his “partners” more carefully. When a law enforcement agency can't be bothered with search warrants, due process, the right to counsel and the right to challenge one's deportation in court, does it even deserve to be considered part of the “criminal justice system”? And how can we expect anything different from ICE officers? They've got 12 million people to deport over the next four years, and that's not a task that leaves much time for legal niceties.

You may think it's crazy to think we can round up 12 million people and ship them out of the country in the next few years. Sheriff Mahoney may even agree with you. After all, he didn't write the plan, and he may not even be aware it exists. But, like the man who shovels coal into the boiler with no thought to where the train is headed, he does his part.