Agents’ Union Delays Training on New Policy on Deportation
The federal agency in charge of deportations is conducting a far-reaching training course to push immigration enforcement officers and prosecutors nationwide to focus their efforts on removing immigrants convicted of crimes.
The training course is the clearest sign yet that administration officials want to transform the way immigration officers work, asking them to make nuanced decisions to speed deportations of high-risk offenders while halting those of illegal immigrants with clean records and strong ties to the country. The policy is President Obamas most ambitious immigration initiative before the November elections, senior administration officials said.
But in a new sign of the deep dissension over immigration, the union representing some 7,000 deportation officers of the agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, has so far not allowed its members to participate in the training. Without the formal assent of the union, the administrations strategy could be significantly slowed for months in labor negotiations.
Chris Crane, the president of the union, the National ICE Council, has fiercely criticized the strategy, saying it amounts to orders from ICE officials for agents not to enforce the law. In Congressional testimony, Mr. Crane accused the administration of tailoring its enforcement practices to win support from immigrant communities for Mr. Obamas re-election.
full: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/us/illegal-immigrants-who-commit-crimes-focus-of-deportation.html?pagewanted=all
Survivoreesta
(221 posts)What do you want, sir? Mr. Scott isn't around to beam all the illegals out of the country. Nor would the companies that hire them want that! Which reminds me, why aren't you complaning about the COMPANIES breaking the law?
saras
(6,670 posts)No police officer, ever, anywhere, enforces ALL the laws ALL the time.
This is not unlike directing police to focus on murder and robberies, and stop issuing so many traffic tickets, and the police union REFUSING to because fighting murder and robberies take up precious officer time that could be used to issue a LOT of tickets.
Justice wanted
(2,657 posts)James48
(4,410 posts)I am a federal employee, and a Union rep.
Not at ICE, but at another agency.
And I can tell you that 'training" is simply NOT a legal subject of bargaining. No Union rep can "stop" management from conducting training of any kind.
It simply is not subject to bargaining. Period.
The story says that the Union is holding up training, by not signing off on it. That's BUNK! The Union CAN'T sign off on it, because it IS NOT A LEGAL SUBJECT OF BARGAINING, and therefore it should not be on the table in the first place.
What a crock of lies.
Even if the Union leadership did not like the training, under FEDERAL LAW, TRAINING IS NOT ALLOWED TO BE THE SUBJECT OF NEGOTIATIONS.