Defending illegal aliens over citizens.
In one of first forays into electoral politics, a civil liberties group is spending $175,000 in Mecklenburg County’s sheriff race with ads accusing incumbent Irwin Carmichael of working with “Trump’s deportation force.”
The American Civil Liberties Union, a non-partisan group, is targeting Carmichael’s 287(g) program ahead of Tuesday’s Democratic primary.
The program partners sheriff deputies with federal immigration officials to identify undocumented immigrants charged with crimes and process them for possible deportation.
A new report shows those held under the program last year included murderers, other felons and 111 people charged with DWI. There were also less serious offenses like traffic violations and, in one case, possessing undersized fish.
Carmichael faces fellow Democrats Antoine Ensley and Garry McFadden, who both say they would end the program. With no Republican running, Tuesday’s winner is virtually guaranteed a four-year term.
In addition to 287(g), the ACLU ad also takes aim at the practice by which teenaged inmates can end up in isolation if they exhibit disruptive behavior toward a jail staff or fellow inmates.
“Our current sheriff, Irwin Carmichael, has kept teenagers locked in solitary confinement,” a narrator says. “The NAACP calls it torture…. That’s not all. Sheriff Carmichael works with Trump’s deportation force. Detaining people for deportation. Tearing families apart.”
Carmichael disputes the characterizations.
He said inmates are kept in what he calls a Disciplinary Detention Unit only if they’ve threatened guards or other inmates. They’re still provided mental health, education and other services, he said.
Rabbi Judy Schindler, a member of group that protested conditions at the jail Thursday, also criticized the sheriff’s partnership in federal immigration enforcement.
She says 287(g) is also making the community less safe because immigrant victims of crime no longer contact police out of fear of being swept into the deportation pipeline, she said.
“Anyone who is undocumented is subject to detention and deportation,” she said. “Mothers, fathers, sons and daughters are being deported. Tearing families apart is not an American value.”
Carmichael said 287(g) has been around for 12 years, three sheriffs and three presidents, including Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Barack Obama.
“Nothing has changed with this program in 12 years, so I don’t get where they’re coming from,” Carmichael said.