Rep. John Carter (TX-31) today introduced an amendment to the FY 09 Homeland Security Appropriations bill.  The amendment would provide $12 million to section 287(g) of the Immigration Nationality Act (INA) which allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to delegate enforcement powers to state and local law enforcement allowing them to investigate, detain and arrest criminal aliens.  The “287(g) program” directly promotes the goal of finding and removing dangerous illegal aliens.  

“Local and state law enforcement agents are on the front lines in the battle against criminal aliens, and we need to provide them with every resource available to win this fight,” Rep. Carter said.  “ICE has requested $12 million to provide for the 77 new state and local agencies who want to benefit from this program.  We need to give them this money.  If we don’t, we could stop the growth of this critical program and lose our ability to effectively remove dangerous alien fugitives from our streets.”

As of June 12, 2008, ICE had signed agreement with 47 state and local agencies to participate in the program.  There are 18 pending agreements between ICE and local agencies, and 77 new agencies are requesting 287(g) agreements.

“The 287(g) program has been successful and will continue to grow as long as Congress continues to provide it with funds,” Carter continued.  “Over 720 law enforcement agents have been trained to handle criminal aliens and over 29,700 criminal aliens have been investigated, detained and arrested.”

ICE requested $12 million for FY09 for the 287(g) program.  This $12 million was not specifically included in the Homeland Security Appropriations bill.  The Carter 287(g) amendment increases the ICE State and Local programs budget by $12 million, specifically targeting the funding for use by the 287(g) program.

Unfortunately, Carter's amendment failed by a party-line vote in the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Markup. 

“Although this amendment failed today, I look forward to bringing this fight to the House floor.  Hopefully, we will be successful in convincing a few of my Democrat friends how critical this program is in keeping our communities safe from criminal aliens.”