6NEWS

Mecklenburg County has one of North Carolina’s fastest growing Hispanic populations and most people feel the increase is mainly a result of illegal immigration. Monday, federal and local authorities say they've reached a milestone in punishing illegal immigrants who commit crimes in the community.

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office announced that nearly than 1,000 criminal illegal aliens have been or will be deported. So far 128 of that 1,000 have been forced to leave the country.

Representative Sue Myrick attended the meeting along with Mecklenburg County Sheriff Jim Pendergraph and they both praised the program, which is referred to as 287G. The program debuted in April when trained deputies began preparing documentation to deport illegal aliens who have been found guilty of a crime.

Several Mecklenburg County deputies were trained by ICE to interview foreign national inmates to determine whether there is probable cause for an immigration violation. They were also trained to complete the processing for criminal aliens and to prepare documentation for deportation proceedings.

"This new program changes how North Carolina responds to illegal aliens. This program provides us with some much -needed back up and real results", said Myrick.

"The 287G program is just another way to successfully remove from our country illegal aliens who prey on our citizens," said Pendergraph.

He also said having these tools now makes the process much easier and quicker.

“Before we had access to this program, we had no way to determine that these people were aggravated felons or had committed felonies in other parts of the country or had been removed before,” he said. “Now we can do that and everyone that comes into this jail since May 1 has been screened and will continue to be screened.”

During the announcement the sheriff’s office profiled three illegal immigrants who had already been deported. Their criminal history included kidnapping, drug trafficking, selling drugs and weapons violations.

All of them have the violation of re-entry after deportation.