Illegal immigrants discussed at POA board work session

Public Safety director A. Laroy Cornett gave a special presentation to the POA board concerning illegal immigrants working in the Village.
It has been the practice of the Public Safety Department to periodically check work passes at the manned gates. Those entering the Village with electronic gate passes are not monitored. During the manned gate checks the names of the workers without proper identification are run through the NCIC computer data base. If there is an outstanding warrant the police will act accordingly.
People with legal work passes and or work decals on their cars are not stopped for further investigation.
No one is allowed into the Village without a proper work pass. No one is allowed into the Village with someone else’s work pass. 24 cards have been confiscated this year from non-card owners. Of those 14 were worker passes, eight were property owner passes and two were renter passes.
In order to retrieve a confiscated pass the owner must see Chief Cornett personally.
Work passes are issued under three categories, daytime, restaurant and unlimited. The daytime passes are mostly for construction workers. The restaurant passes offered extended hours for service staff at the Village restaurants. The unlimited passes are issued to health care workers that need 24 hour access to their patients.
The current policy is to turn away illegal immigrants discovered attempting to enter the Village through the manned gates as it is to turn away anyone without the proper identification. Officers do not arrest anyone for being an illegal immigrant. If they did the Village would have to pay for their incarceration until there is a hearing by the government’s immigration department. The immigration department does not pick up any of the cost of incarceration.
Both county jails can ill afford to house illegal immigrants indefinitely, especially Garland County. Garland County has been suffering from overcrowding for years.
Cornett assured board members that illegal immigrants are not much of a factor, if any, in crime in the Village. He said 98.6-percent of the crimes committed in the Village are by residents, their dependents and visiting friends.
Chief suggested if the POA board wanted to crack down on illegal immigrants entering the Village they needed to crack down on employers hiring the. The employer should demand two forms of legal identification mandated by the federal government. He believes going after the employer would be a quick and effective way to police the situation.
Board member Mike Misch voiced his opinion that the current system does not profile any particular type of person and should remain the policy of the board.