A controversial program that allows local police to enforce federal immigration laws could be phased out by the Obama administration.
The program, officially known as 287(g), allows local police officers to be trained and deputized to enforce immigration law. It has been widely criticized by immigrant rights groups, who say the program has been misused by some departments to racially profile Latinos, and supported by groups that want tougher measures to curb illegal immigration.
In a proposed budget for the Department of Homeland Security released last month, agency officials said they plan to discontinue the program and use the money to boost another program, called Secure Communities, which allows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to screen inmates in county jails to detect and deport illegal immigrants.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, criticized the administration's decision to eliminate the 287(g) program.
"This is an uneven trade-off, cutting loose one program that deals directly with enforcement, the way it should be, and bringing in another program that goes after repeat offenders," Hunter spokesman Joe Kasper said. "Secure Communities is not a bad program, but it's not a replacement for 287(g), which has a real presence in communities."
There are no police departments in San Diego County that use the 287(g) program, an ICE official said. However, the Escondido Police Department has a partnership, called Operation Joint Effort, with ICE that allows agents to work side by side with police officers to identify and deport illegal immigrants with criminal histories.
The Riverside County Sheriff's Department signed a 287(g) agreement with the federal government in 2010. The agreement allows deputies assigned to county jails to screen inmates for immigration violations. Officials with the Riverside County Sheriff's Department could not be reached for comment.
In San Diego County jails, including the one in Vista, ICE officers conduct the follow-up interviews with inmates to screen them for immigration violations.
Lt. Chris Wynn, a spokesman for the Escondido Police Department, said Operation Joint Effort will not be affected by the proposal to eliminate 287(g) partnerships.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego confirmed that the agency has no plans to dissolve its partnership with Escondido.
"The Escondido Police Department is not a part of 287(g)," ICE spokeswoman Lauren Mack said. "It's a local partnership."
Escondido police officials say Operation Joint Effort has been successful in helping them to remove more than 650 criminal illegal immigrants since the program began in May 2010.
Dozens of local police departments signed up for the 287(g) program under President George Bush's administration, but only a handful have signed up under the Obama administration. A total of 68 agencies participate in the program, according to ICE.
In December, the Obama administration dissolved its 287(g) partnership with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, headed by Sheriff Joe Arpaio, in Arizona after a Department of Justice investigation found "discriminatory policing practices," according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Pedro Rios, San Diego director of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker human rights organization, said he was pleased with the announcement of the phase-out of 287(g), but added that he was troubled by the expansion of Secure Communities.
"In a way, 287(g) has become a public-relations nightmare because of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, but Secure Communities is equally concerning or worse," Rios said.
In its proposed budget for 2013, Department of Homeland Security officials say they will no longer sign new 287(g) contracts. They also announced that the department will terminate the least productive agreements, which is expected to save about $17 million.
The money will be used to expand Secure Communities, a program that works by checking the fingerprints of people booked into county jails against immigration databases.
According to the proposed budget, Secure Communities is "more efficient and cost-effective in identifying and removing criminal and other priority aliens."
Mack, the ICE spokeswoman, said she did not know how much additional funding the programs in San Diego and Riverside counties might get. She said the programs here were among the first to be implemented in the country and that the new funds may go to programs that are just getting started elsewhere.