CASA Sues Frederick County Sheriff's Office

[AlphaCentauri]

Source: ABC

Maryland’s largest immigrants’ rights organization filed suit Wednesday in Montgomery County Circuit Court. They filed against the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office for repeated refusals to release information about its participation in a controversial and costly federal program.

The program is known as 287(g) – through which 26 local officers enforce federal immigration law. In May, CASA released a report expressing concerns that the program would lead to racial profiling.

Critics of the program are concerned that even officers not trained through the program have engaged in racial profiling of Frederick’s Latino residents. What little is known about the program strongly suggests that these concerns were well-founded. The suit seeks the immediate release of information.

Read more: http://www.abc2news.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=46e9f81b-55b4-4669-a567-6d3551c9cf65

[Waiting For Everyman]

1. This story doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

For one thing, why sue the Frederick County Sheriff in Montgomery County court? How does Montgomery County have any jurisdiction over Frederick County?

And there aren't a whole lot of Latinos in Frederick Country. There are more Indians. So it sounds to me like this has more to do with specific criminal gang/drug activities than profiling as discrimination.

[EFerrari]

2. Right. The Sheriff is withholding the records of the hundreds of gang/drug busts.

While Sheriff Jenkins has publicly stated that he sought the 287(g) agreement to remove violent criminal aliens from Frederick, a majority of those caught up in the program have been charged with driving without a license. In fact, of the hundreds of people arrested under the agreement, only fifteen felony charges have been brought because the Sheriff’s Office has not released statistics regarding convictions, it is unknown how many have resulted, if any.

. . .

Obvious racial profiling and the good citizens of Frederick are paying for it.

[Waiting For Everyman]

3. Here's my guess..

I'm not excusing Jenkins but as I said, there is no noticeable Latino population here. What we do have, are two major interstates that intersect right here, north-south and east-west. My guess is, that most of the Latinos who are in this area at all are passing through. Naturally, most of those charged with anything would include traffic violations.

I know this area as well as anybody could, and I can safely say that the poor of all backgrounds are harassed pretty much equally, especially if they're young - including both whites and blacks from families which have been here for generations. The only people who aren't, are the growing number of nouveau riche McMansion-dwellers... mostly because they buy their way out of anything.

Profiling? If anything from what I've seen, the profile that's targeted is poor whites under 30 - it's a safe bet that's the dominant ethnic group in the local jails by far.

Montgomery County is whacko anyway. I expect them to legislate how many times a person can breathe per minute next. And again, what do they have to say about a Frederick County Sheriff anyway? Why isn't whatever the problem is, brought to the Frederick County State's Attorney or whoever?

CASA has no business griping about anything here, it's preposterous. There aren't enough of their constituency here for anything to be a serious problem or any kind of trend. There ARE problems that need attention, but that isn't one of them.

Interstate cops hassle EVERYBODY - in case that hasn't been noticed yet. They're like vultures.