Sen. Dole (R-NC) wants to help local sheriffs enforce immigration laws:

After a Thursday meeting with sheriffs from Wake, Johnston and several other central North Carolina counties, she said she would seek more federal funding to help counties eager to participate in a program that allows them to enforce federal immigration laws.

The program, established under a 1996 law that for years went unnoticed, is gaining popularity as sheriffs grow frustrated with understaffed Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices. Where the federal agency had once exclusively enforced immigration laws, sheriffs can now get involved if they go through a training program.

Once trained, they can check the immigration status of criminal suspects and begin deportation proceedings.

This story also says that Dole, who is running for re-election in 2008, is emphasizing her policies on immigration policy and her history in opposing the "grand bargain."