MECKLENBURG COUNTY. N/C/ — The 287 (g) program allows Mecklenburg County sheriff's deputies to act as immigration enforcers.
Mecklenburg County is one of only 40 agencies that still participate in the federal program.
The Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office is standing firm behind the 287 (g) program.
Deputies said it gives them the tools they need to keep the jail and the community safe.
Capt. Daniel Stitt said that more than a dozen arrests made just in the last two weeks are of individuals who are in the United States illegally.
They were identified through the United States Immigration and Customs 287 (g) program.
"We don't have a dragnet. We don't go out looking for anyone,” Stitt said.
Stitt said about a few hundred illegal immigrants are arrested in Mecklenburg County every year.
The 287 (g) program gives him, a sergeant and several deputies the ability to act as immigration officers.
Stitt said he’s been involved with it for 12 years.
"I was the original sergeant supervisor for the program when it started in 2006,” Stitt said.
Since then, Stitt said the program has been controversial.
This week, newly elected Councilman Braxton Winston called for an end to the program in Mecklenburg County.
“I would encourage all of us to think about what we can do to disrupt these systems,” Winston said.
Winston said the program does more harm than good.
“Participation with 287 (g) has a detrimental effect to the ability of our public safety officers to create trust within communities,” Winston said. “We are a city where 20 percent of Charlotteans are born internationally.”
Winston also asked Mecklenburg County Sheriff Irwin Carmichael to support the move, but Carmichael is behind the program.
Officials with the Sheriff's Office call 287 (g) a resource they use to pick out violent offenders, such as MS-13 gang members, more quickly.
"It gives us that tool so that we know who these folks are,” Stitt said.
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