Staff file photo Sheriff Chuck Jenkins

National plans include cutting costs, providing detention alternatives for nonviolent violators who are not a high flight risk, improving medical care and hiring more personnel to oversee facilities, among other initiatives announced last week by federal officials.

The local contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as an Inter-Governmental Service Agreement, started at the Frederick County Adult Detention Center in July 2007.

From its inception through 2008, about 1,850 immigration detainees have been housed under the agreement at the county jail. The jail has been reimbursed more than $2.5 million from the federal government for holding the detainees.

About 30 percent of those housed under the agreement are arrested by local law enforcement agencies, then have their immigration status checked as part of a separate program that allows trained sheriff's deputies to enforce federal immigration laws. That program is known as a 287(g) agreement.

Jenkins said he hasn't seen concrete plans by federal authorities about new initiatives for detaining illegal immigrants.

"We run this thing the way it's supposed to be run, and haven't received any criticism from the Department of Homeland Security," he said.

Reformed system

The ICE budget for jailing detainees was about $2.6 billion in fiscal 2009, according to a review of ICE's detention system published Tuesday by Dora Schriro, former director of detention policy for the Department of Homeland Security.

In fiscal 2008, ICE detained 378,582 illegal immigrants, more than any other detention system in the nation, the report stated.

Currently, federal, state and local police hand over about 60 percent of the unauthorized immigrants ICE further detains through its Criminal Alien and 287(g) programs, the report stated.

In fiscal 2009, about 41 percent of the average daily Criminal Alien Program detainees, and 57 percent of the initial book-ins, did not have criminal convictions.

During the same time frame, about 53 percent of the average daily population of 287(g) detainees and 65 percent of initial book-ins did not have criminal convictions, the report stated.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Assistant Secretary John Morton announced in a statement Tuesday that ICE will work to identify suitable candidates for alternative detention.

This process can reduce costs and speed up judgments in immigration cases, the press release stated.

Alternative facilities could include converted hotels, nursing homes and other residential facilities, the officials said.

Within six months, ICE will create a medical classification system to monitor immigration detainees' physical and mental condition while in detention, officials said.

Jenkins said people caught up in the 287(g) program have been arrested on suspicion of committing other crimes. He didn't think an alternative detention program should apply in Frederick County.

"I don't agree with it," he said.

He also said medical treatment at the jail for immigration detainees meets state and federal standards.

Ajmel Quereshi, an attorney for the ACLU of Maryland, said the proposed changes to detention policies are a step in the right direction.

But "until the DHS issues regulations creating legally binding standards, we're just not sure that changes are really going to occur," he said.

The ACLU would like to see shorter delays for suspected illegal immigrants as they wait for their cases to be heard by a judge, and an adequate medical standards and alternatives to detention for low-risk detainees, Quereshi said.

Another ongoing ICE initiative has been to prioritize the arrest, identification and removal of illegal immigrants who have been convicted of violent crimes or major drug or sex offenses.

In July, Napolitano announced plans to standardize and create new memorandums of agreement for 287(g) participants that would reflect those priorities.

Jenkins said he has already signed a new agreement and sent it to ICE.

But the new agreement still does not create binding requirements or oversight methods to make sure local police are focusing immigration arrests on violent or dangerous offenders, Quereshi said.

There are still no requirements that localities prosecute those processed through the 287(g) for their original crimes before ICE picks them up, he said.

Moreover, the ACLU continues to be concerned about the possibility this situation may lead to racial profiling under the program.

Jenkins has repeatedly denied that Frederick County sheriff's deputies are using racial profiling.

"A lot of the MOA, in general terms, would clarify authority under the program," he said. "I don't think the changes will affect us."

Quereshi also said some of the data local agencies are supposed to collect on the program may be shielded from public scrutiny.

Other information about the program may have to be collected directly from ICE and available to the public only under federal regulations and laws, an ACLU study of the new agreements concluded.

Jenkins said he didn't think the previous agreement with ICE had allowed him to share some information with immigrant advocacy group CASA de Maryland, which sued him for access to the information.

The new agreement makes that clear, he said. "I think it's something we'll clean up."