Collaborating With
Federal Officials

I am writing this after just returning from our 2007 Annual Conference and Banquet. We attended some excellent training sessions while having very frank discussions about issues facing the citizens of Oregon. It is a great experience to be able to discuss issues affecting all Oregon Sheriffs, as well as those impacting sheriffs and law enforcement officials nationwide.

We were very fortunate to have the National Sheriff Association?s President, Craig Webre, attend our conference. Sheriff Webre, who is from Louisiana, gave a presentation on issues facing sheriffs across the U.S.

One of the biggest issues today is illegal aliens and other foreign-born nationals who commit crimes and end up in our county jails. In Oregon, all county jail systems are operated under the authority of the local sheriff. We process over 190,000 prisoners every year and collectively house about 7,000 inmates every day. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been attempting to deport most of those who have committed crimes in Oregon and other states. Under current Oregon law, police officers are restricted from assisting or working with ICE except when foreign-born nationals have been arrested and are in our county jails. ICE has asked to be notified when a foreign-born national is in a local jail. ICE then puts a "hold" on the person; when his case has been adjudicated in Oregon, ICE will then pick the person up within 48 hours, transporting him to their detention center and beginning the deportation process.

Although we have been working collaboratively with ICE for many years, they have recently begun enhancing their efforts to deport illegal aliens who have committed crimes.

Earlier this year when ICE became more aggressive, there was concern that an increase the jail populations in Oregon may occur. Washington County Sheriff Rob Gordon has studied this issue in his own jail. He found the more aggressive ICE policy is actually reducing the number of jail beds those individuals are using. He has found that although the daily average of foreign-born nationals has nearly doubled, their length of stay in the local jail is less.

The net result in Washington County is a nearly 50% reduction in jail beds used to house illegal aliens. More importantly, the number of foreign-born criminals arrested on any charge has dropped by about 100 a month.

Although the results are preliminary, they seem to indicate an aggressive reaction to criminal acts by foreign nationals is producing good results for Oregon. This kind of collaboration with federal officials is only one example of how your sheriff can make the difference.

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