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An agreement between the Town of Herndon and federal customs officials to empower local officers to enforce federal immigration law has been broadened, according to town officials.

In March 2007, the Herndon Town Council voted to make Herndon the first incorporated town in America to allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to train and empower local officers to enforce federal immigration law.

"It is clear that the Herndon Police Department's application of the authority to enforce federal immigration law under the 287(g) program has been very successful and has made Herndon a much safer place to live and raise a family," said Town Councilman Dennis Husch.

"During the period from January 2008 through June 2009, Herndon Police prepared, and DHS ICE approved, 179 deportation detainers to remove criminal illegal aliens from the Herndon community."

In September 2008, the federal Department of Homeland Security, under orders from the Government Accountability Office, requested a new more standardized form of the agreement to replace the 2007 Memorandum of Agreement with Herndon. "My understanding is that some jurisdictions were applying their 287(g) authority in ways not anticipated by the Department of Homeland Security," Husch said Saturday. "A standard MOA evenly applies the authority to all participating jurisdictions. In Herndon's case, the opportunity for enforcement was greatly expanded by the new MOA."

The new agreement has now been signed by Herndon Mayor Steve DeBenedittis and awaits ratification by the town council.

Previously, immigration status checks were limited to people detained for driving under the influence and other serious felonies. Under the new agreement, those restrictions were removed and now anyone being detained will have their immigration status checked.

Herndon Police Chief Toussaint Summers declined to comment on the new agreement. But in a statement given to the town council, Summers claims "the new agreement prioritizes the identification and removal of dangerous criminal aliens and ensures consistency and stronger federal oversight of state and local immigration law enforcement efforts across the nation."

Some say that the town's new agreement with ICE is redundant, due to the fact that the county -- which provides incarceration facilities for the town -- already partners with ICE in much the same way.

Since March, 2009, the Fairfax County Sheriff's Deptartment has partnered with ICE in a program called Secure Communities. Under this program, ICE agents check available criminal and immigration records of every individual booked into the Adult Detention Center by Sheriff's deputies.

On Sunday, the Alliance for Herndon's Future, a political action committee that includes two former Herndon mayors, said in a statement that "since Fairfax County is [now] utilizing the Secure Communities program in its jail -- a jail that the Town uses since we don't have a jail--it does appear that 287(g) is redundant."

But Herndon attorney Richard Kaufman disagrees. "I think the town and the county complement each other," he said Monday. "We have a police force and the county has a jail, and we complement each other and work well together. I have never heard of any issues of overlap."

But cost to the town is where the overlap may lie.

The new MOA states that the Herndon Police Department "is responsible for the salaries and benefits, including overtime, of all its personnel being trained or performing duties under this MOA."

The overall program's cost to the town has never been made public, but according to a February 2007 e-mail from Summers to Kaufman -- obtained by the Fairfax County Times through a Freedom of Information Act request -- Summers originally estimated under the terms of the old MOA, that the average cost to train one officer under the federal program at an average hourly wage of $29.50 would be approximately $5,900.

For a sergeant at an average hourly wage of $41.78, that cost rises to $8,356.

"If we send six officers ($35,400) and one sergeant ($8,356), the total cost would be $43,766," Summers wrote in the e-mail, adding, "This figure does not take into account the cost of benefits."

The cost of processing illegal aliens, however, will not likely be reimbursed by ICE, according to Kaufman in the email.

"ICE estimates that it will take approximately 3-5 hours for an officer to process a criminal alien," Summers wrote in the same e-mail. "The cost to process each illegal alien would range from a low of $88.50 (3 hours @ officer salary) to a high of $208.90 (5 hours @ sergeant salary)."

The Alliance for Herndon's Future says the town should now verify if the county program would cover any of those costs. "At that point, the 287(g) program and its associated costs would not be necessary for our police department," the group said in a statement on Sunday.

The Herndon Town Council will vote on the ratification of the new agreement at its public hearing on Nov. 24.

"I see no reason why the new MOA will not be approved by the Town Council," Husch said.