News-Record.com

An accused serial rapist sitting in the Mecklenburg County jail is an illegal immigrant deported last year only to cross the border from Mexico into Texas again this year.

And there are a few more like him, The Charlotte Observer reports:

"Since last April, Mecklenburg sheriff's deputies working with federal immigration agents, have identified more than 150 illegal immigrants at the jail who had been deported before but re-entered the country."

More:

"In April 2006, the Mecklenburg Sheriff's Office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities launched a program at the jail to identify illegal immigrants. Inmates born outside the United States are fingerprinted and photographed. The information is then sent to the federal immigration database to determine if the suspects are in the country legally.

"Through the program, authorities have identified more than 2,400 illegal immigrants and targeted them for deportation."

Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes wants his department to participate in the same program. The idea has stirred fears of deputies rounding up immigrants, but that doesn't happen. The major concern has to do with powers to detain witnesses to crimes; otherwise, it seems hard to object to an effort that might increase deportations of illegal immigrants who are arrested for committing crimes.

Unfortunately, it's then up to federal immigration authorities to keep them out of the country. Unless they start doing a better job, local law-enforcement efforts won't be 100 percent effective.