DEA: IMMIGRATION PROGRAM HAS NO IMPACT ON BIG-TIME DRUG TRAFFIC

Alamance County's 287(g) program has "no effect" on local illicit
drug trafficking, said Wally Serniak, the resident agent in charge of
the Greensboro office of the Drug Enforcement Administration. The
program, named after a portion of a congressional act, allows local
lawmen and detention officers to be trained and deputized as federal
Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents.

Serniak made his conclusion Monday after Alamance County Commissioner
Tim Sutton, an anti-illegal immigration advocate, asked Serniak "how
bad" the illicit drug trade might be in Alamance County if Sheriff
Terry Johnson had not taken on 287(g), the illegal immigration
enforcement partnership with the federal Department of Homeland
Security. The program has been in place in Alamance County for two years.

"287 (g) has no effect on trafficking," Serniak replied. The drug
trafficking organizations in the county are "like a family business,"
and stretch back several generations, the agent said. "In the short
time that I've been here, we've seen the generational takeover of
these drug traffickers. A lot of them have been naturalized, or
they're born here, so they're not illegal. I don't believe that the
287(g) affects that," Serniak said.

If a drug trafficker is "picked up" through 287(g), the DEA may "get
one," Serniak added, but his agency doesn't "use that to target
anybody. "We have other methods, so I don't know if I could really
answer that." Sutton said he thought that counties without 287(g),
which he calls "sanctuary counties," would be "an easier place" for
such activity.