Suffern immigration enforcement plan gets support in new Web site

SUFFERN - Supporters of a controversial proposal to partner with federal immigration enforcement authorities have launched a Web site for information and advocacy.

Lisa Clifford, a longtime Suffern resident and the webmaster of www.support287g.com, said she started the site to provide information about benefits of the plan.

Clifford said she couldn't understand why people in the community would oppose the proposal.

"As you start to speak to people, you know, a lot of people are saying the same thing. It doesn't make any sense," she said, adding she has received hundreds of e-mails since she launched the site May 30. "There are so many good people in this community. Whether they're documented or not, I have no idea. That is irrelevant to me; it's their participation as human beings and what they give to this community that makes all the sense. These are not the people who this is targeting."

Suffern is among the first municipalities in the state to apply to join 287(g), a federal program that lets U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement partner with local law enforcement. Under the accord, local officers are trained to identify criminals who are undocumented, detain them on immigration charges and start deportation proceedings.

Critics of the application say the village doesn't have a high violent-crime rate and that the partnership isn't necessary. Suffern officials say they are being proactive.

Opponents of the plan launched their own campaign a few months ago.

Biensy Rosa, a village businesswoman who has been a vocal critic of the plan, has organized the Latino Democrats and has held public meetings.

Community Power, a local group that advocates sustainable development, environmental awareness and children's well-being, also has registered its opposition to the plan and hosted a public forum. Community Power has its own Web site, www.communitypower.tv.

Dave Gutierrez of Community Power said he had visited Clifford's site.

"It is excellent to see the use of online communication being used as a tool to dialogue and to educate people regarding issues that we are passionate about," Gutierrez said. "I'm all for it. I'm all for the use of the technology and the Web site ... although we differ on the issue."

Local immigrant advocates, clergy and members of the non-profit and service communities have criticized the plan's potential to harm the community by alienating immigrants - legal and illegal, thereby disrupting families and possibly harming the local economy.

Several members of the opposition groups have written to Suffern officials or met with them to register their concern.

But those fears are unwarranted, Mayor John Keegan and Police Chief Clarke Osborn have said. Both have said the plan would be used to target aggravated or violent felons of any nationality and that it would not be used to engage in widespread profiling of members of the village's Hispanic immigrant community.

Clifford said the opposition's claims amount to nothing more than fear-mongering.

The site authored by Clifford, along with a small number of Suffern residents or merchants who comprise the group organizing the effort, features information on the plan's myths and facts, national participation, local politicians' stances on the issue, stories from around the nation and detail of the process by which local police would utilize their federal authority when dealing with a suspect.

"It's not for the person who maybe doesn't have a driver's license," Clifford said of 287(g). "It's not for the person who's jaywalking or loitering, that's ridiculous. It's for the felon. It's for the aggravated felon."

Clifford said support for the effort has been overwhelming.

"Since the Web site has been up, we're just getting flooded with e-mails," she said.

More than 500 people have signed petitions that are on the Web site and that have been circulated around the village, Clifford said, adding that, as of Tuesday night, she had received more than 700 e-mails on the subject.

Keegan said he believed the site was informative.

"I think it's great. ... Everybody that has a questions about 287(g), it'll answer the questions," he said. "It has on it myths, the mission, and what 287(g) is all about and most people that I've spoken to that (have) visited the site have said that it is a great site."

The village is awaiting a response from the federal government on its application.

Reach Suzan Clarke at snclarke@lohud.com or 845-578-2414.