Troopers should help spot illegal immigrants, Alabama official says

By TRENT SEIBERT, Staff Writer
The Tennessean
March 29, 2006

Training highway patrol officers to spot people who are in this country illegally is a plan that Tennessee should implement, according to an assistant attorney general from Alabama where the program has been in place for three years.

J. Haran Lowe Jr. briefed Senate and House members shortly before he was scheduled to testify before the Senate Transportation committee on the issue. Sen. Mark Norris, R-Collierville, is sponsoring legislation that would allow Tennessee to tap into federal funds to train patrol officers on immigration and customs laws.

"Tennessee has not taken advantage of it," Norris said.

Lowe said that 43 of Alabama's 681 troopers volunteered for the training, which is provided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. In the past three years, those troopers have arrested 55 people for breaking immigration laws.

Troopers do not enforce immigration laws for the federal government, but rather are trained if the officers come across people breaking those laws in the course of their duties, Lowe said.

"The troopers have not made a tremendous amount of arrests, and we would not expect them to," Lowe said.