Sheriffs gather on Beacon Hill for immigration change

BOSTON -- Some Massachusetts sheriffs went to Beacon Hill Wednesday, calling for more measures to combat illegal immigration in the state.

Protesters crashed the news conference, fighting a Secure Communities program that Governor Deval Patrick doesn’t want. The sheriffs say they’ll implement it anyway.

The group went to Washington last week and came back with a commitment to work with ICE and train their staffs to check backgrounds.

The arrest of murder suspect and illegal alien Marcello Almeida in Marshfield for allegedly killing his girlfriend and the arrest for the sixth time of an illegal driving drunk even though he’d been deported, are just two of the high-profile cases that have brought the issue to a head.

“This is an extraordinary public safety issue,” Worcester County Sheriff Lewis Evangelidis said. “And you’re seeing as I’m seeing now, it seems like every day we’re seeing people who are not only here illegally but they’re committing crimes. Those are criminal aliens, and that’s the issue we’re trying to get at as sheriffs.”

The sheriffs say they will begin training their staffs immediately and that ICE will be sending people to work with them to help them work with the databases the federal government has available.

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