Sheriff, Warden Explain ICE 287(g) At Freeholder Meeting

CREST HAVEN – Cape May County Sheriff Gary Schaffer and Warden Donald Lombardo explained the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 287(g) program at the March 28 freeholders meeting.  
Their explanations addressed some of the concerns of those opposed to the program that could deport illegal aliens only if they appear at the correctional center.
Meetings in February and earlier in March had greater numbers of protesters who opposed the county’s participation in the program. About 35 attended this meeting; three carried signs against the plan.
Schaffer and Lombardo addressed the group after all others voiced opinions. One supported the plan, but most were against the idea of having three corrections officers, stationed in the jail and who classify inmates, act as deputy federal agents of ICE.
Schaffer noted concerns of opponents who feared the program would impact the tourist economy, frightening away workers and others who might come to visit.
“Law enforcement needs to be a little bit pro-active. That’s part of what’s happening in Atlantic City or Pleasantville were there have been multiple homicides. People don’t want to go there because they feel unsafe.
“They come to Cape May County because they feel safe. We live in a safe county,” he said.
Schaffer noted the 12.5 million visitors annually to the county in the summer. “We have to protect those people,” said Schaffer.
In church on the prior Sunday, Schaffer said there were many children making First Communion in Ocean City.
He said about half were Hispanic and wondered “how many were legal and how many illegal?” He added that he continues to work with that parish priest “to educate people with facts (about the ICE 287 (g) program).”
He noted, as a law enforcement officer, “I can’t choose which laws to enforce,” but all must be equally enforced.
He added that the ICE program he sought authorization to join is something the county correctional center has been doing since 2008. “Nothing has changed,” said Schaffer, and further added that nothing new would change. He underscored it was only in the jail that illegal aliens would encounter those officers, not on the streets, since the officers do not work on the streets.
Schaffer said since 2008 the department has participated in the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program and received $275,000 from the state to offset the cost of the officers who do normal criminal history checks of incoming inmates.
No personnel would be hired; no further cash outlays would be undertaken as part of the program, Schaffer said.
He explained how the judicial system works, and stressed several times that only very serious offenders would be incarcerated. None would be there due to minor offenses, such as shoplifting or a traffic offense.
Schaffer held up a document that details an inmate’s vital data, the crime charged, and other information. He said those documents are public and should anyone wish to see them, all they have to do is make an appointment with the warden who would arrange for them to be viewed.
Schaffer cited a case reported in the Herald of a person involved in a knife fight outside a store. That aggravated assault, a second-degree crime, with weapon possession, “Never got to my jail. He was released on a summons,” said the sheriff.
He stated that to show that even more serious crimes do not necessarily land a person in the county jail. He stressed that to allay fears of meeting ICE agents for minor offenses then face being deported.
Freeholder E. Marie Hayes, who served in the County Prosecutor’s Office for 29 years, responded to an allegation made by a speaker about the treatment of an illegal alien who was the victim of a domestic dispute, not in this county.
Hayes, who worked mostly on sexual assault and child assault cases, said the speaker’s source was “extremely one-sided.”
She said at no time in her service of nearly three decades in the county did she experience any case that mimicked that one the speaker read into the record.