Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger says his officers won’t take immigration law enforcement training, unlike police in some Virginia areas, because he believes county police resources are better spent elsewhere.
Members of the anti-illegal immigration group Help Save Maryland on Wednesday night asked Manger to obtain immigration training for officers, telling him they believed it would make Montgomery County a safer place to live. Under a program called 287(g), the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement trains local law enforcement to initiate deportation proceedings for criminal illegal aliens. Virginia’s Prince William, Shenandoah, Rockingham counties and the town of Herndon already have adopted the program, and Loudoun and Culpeper counties have expressed interest in it.
“The training is not something I can do at roll call,” Manger said. “It’s five weeks full time in order to get this training, and that’s a huge investment. If you told me you wanted to give me 25 more cops, in my view and my opinion, I’ve got a lot bigger issues that I need to deal with in this county versus going out and doing something that has historically been the federal government’s job.” Damascus resident Susan Payne told Manger and Gaithersburg Police Chief John A. King she thought 287(g) training would reduce crime in the county.
“When we hear of a crime being committed in the county, somebody being killed by a drunk driver or somebody being stabbed, if it turns out it is an illegal alien, if that person wasn’t in the country, that’s a 100 percent preventable crime,” Payne said. “I think that’s why I keep coming back to 287(g).” According to Manger, the amount of crime in the county committed by illegal immigrants is “not significant.”
“Most of the crimes that are committed by people in Montgomery County are committed by people that are here legally,” Manger said. “Most of the gang members here in this county are here legally. They’re home-grown. They’re Americans.”
Help Save Maryland members told Manger they were concerned Montgomery County was becoming a “safe haven” for illegal immigrants and would soon be “an island” as Virginia jurisdictions adopt the 287(g) training. “It hasn’t solved a thing yet,” Manger said. “And I’ll be interested to see how this pans out. And I’ll be watching very closely.”
