Elgin finds prosecution one way to deter illegal immigrants

Since March 1, Elgin police have arrested 20 illegal immigrants who will be deported if they are convicted of the felony drug charges, gang activity or sex crimes they are accused of.

Another 233 have been reported to the U.S. Immigrations Customs and Enforcement Agency, or ICE, but the status of these arrestees is unknown, said Elgin Police Chief Lisa Womack.

Overall, the department has made 1,259 inquires to the ICE database of foreign-born defendants and 253 - or about one in five - turned out to be in the country illegally.

"I think the initiatives we have are appropriate to our community. I can't say whether I can offer an opinion on whether or not it's reducing our illegal population," Womack said after a presentation to city council members Wednesday. "We are concentrating on the criminal alien portion of the illegal population."

Last January, city officials announced they were taking several steps to combat illegal immigration, such as screening defendants that are foreign born and investigating a host of programs offered under the federal Agreements of Cooperation in Communities to Enhance Safety and Security, or ACCESS.

Doug Heaton, co-founder of the Association For Legal Americans, said the police should increase reporting their screening and reporting to ICE of illegal immigrants. "I suggest that we pick it up a notch," he said.

Mayor Ed Schock said he believes the city's policies are working and disagreed with Heaton, noting that ICE has firm rules on which types of crimes mandate reporting to federal officials.

"Just going through the time and effort making reports in which there will be no action seems to me to be pointless and a bad use of our police officers' time. We're not in charge here, ICE is. That's a point people seem to be missing. We have to follow their rules," said Schock, adding that more than 1,000 accused criminals born outside the country were here legally. "This notion that almost everybody running around who is foreign born is here illegally - those statistics disprove that."