A focal point of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano’s efforts to immigrant enforcement and detection has been pushing for greater federal oversight over the 287 (g) program, which grants broad immigration enforcement authority to state and county law enforcement agencies.

Acknowledging concerns that police in some jurisdictions making arrests for minor infractions as a guise to initiate deportation proceedings, Napolitano in July 2009 announced new 287(g) guidelines designed to ensure that “all or our state and local law enforcement partners use the same standards in implementing the 287(g) program”, specifically standards limiting the scope of local immigrant enforcement to serious criminal charges.

Despite progress in addressing reform of 287 (g) authority, civil liberties groups continue to argue that federal oversight remains insufficient.

Attempting to document continuing abuses, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has issued a report this week titled Terror and Isolation in Cobb: How Unchecked Police Power under 287(g) Has Torn Families Apart and Threatened Public Safety, which examines what it claims are excessive police practices in Cobb County, Georgia.

“The minor changes in the program announced by the Department of Homeland Security in July 2009 make no serious attempt at discouraging profiling or reducing its negative impact on public safety,” the report says.

“As has happened elsewhere where the program has been implemented, Cobb officers have misused the authority granted to them under the agreement and engaged in racial profiling, resulting in the propagation of widespread fear and mistrust towards law enforcement within immigrant communities in Cobb County, specifically the Latino community,” adds the report.

Since the 287(g) Agreement was implemented in Cobb, according to the report, immigrant communities and specifically Latinos have found themselves subjected to meritless traffic stops and baseless arrests.

The report cites numerous examples of alleged police misconduct, including the case of a young Mexican couple stopped on their way home from a visit of the local park with their two young children after they became involved in a car accident.

The report notes, “Two Cobb County police officers asked Federico for his driver’s license, which he does not possess due to his undocumented status. The officer then asked everyone to get out of the car and arrested Joanna’s husband. They were detained for several hours, but were eventually released. Now Joanna says that she avoids driving in general and she has stopped going to Mexican restaurants to avoid police surveillance and harassment. She is even reluctant to call the police because of her immigration status. Once, her kitchen caught on fire and she “was determined to put it out myself so I would not have to call 911.”

In addition to alleging racial profiling, the report also claims that Cobb County has misused its 287(g) authority to detain immigrants unnecessarily, citing the complaints of a defense lawyer that “ at the early stages of 287(g) implementation, jail officials in Cobb County routinely denied detainees bond (and release), thus allowing the officials time to place immigration holds on the detainees in an effort to process them for deportation.”

“Even when detainees were allowed to post bond,” the lawyer added, “ jail officials continued to detain the individuals at the Cobb jail and only released them when habeas actions were filed.”

The report further alleges that detainees were also misinformed about whether or not they were allowed to post bond. The ACLU report argues that the proposed “new” 287(g) fails to change any of the fundamental flaws which give local law enforcement unchecked authority to carry out objectives contrary to the original intent of 287(g).

“Under the new agreement,” it claims, “ICE does not require routine data collection of “arrest data above what is entered to enforce” from the law enforcement agency, but is allowed only to request data related to the “circumstances of a particular alien’s arrest.”

ACLU also expressed concern that the new 287(g) agreement, which says that Immigration and Customs Enforcement ( ICE) will meet periodically with the law enforcement agency and may limit the participation of these meetings in regard to non‐law enforcement personnel, effectively “allows ICE and law enforcement to have closed meetings without the oversight or contribution of local community organizations or the general public.”

The report also chides the new policy for lack of transparency. “Further mystifying the details of 287(g) implementation,” it says, “ the new policy declares that “a great number of 287(g)‐related documents will not be considered public records, and will requie agencies to get ICE approval before releasing information about the program.”

If the 287(g) Agreement between ICE and the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office is to remain in effect, the report argues, “ The Cobb County Sheriff’s Office and Police Departments need to address the lack of accountability for racial profiling and other police abuses at the local level.”

“ICE needs to exercise greater oversight over the implementation of 287(g) in Cobb County,” the report concludes, “ especially due to the documented pattern of abuse.”