BOSTON — Essex County Sheriff Frank Cousins wants to deport 123 criminal aliens — 10 percent of the 1,200 county inmates under his supervision — back to their homelands with the help of federal immigration officials.

“I’m interested in people arrested for committing crimes and being held in our institution. They need to be identified and sent out of the country,” Cousins said Wednesday.

He said sheriff’s employees use fingerprint data checks, facial recognition searches and other background information searches to pin down the identity of individuals sent to Middleton after being arrested.

“But if they are undocumented and never fingerprinted, that’s not going to be in the FBI data base,” he said.

Cousins’ fellow sheriffs announced at a State House news conference on Wednesday their plan to forge a connection with the federal Secure Communities initiative.

“We have identified people lying to us, saying they are U.S. citizens and they are not,” Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson said.

Hodgson said Massachusetts enjoys a reputation among criminal aliens as a place where they can “go to lay below the radar; where no one is going to notice them.”

But Gov. Deval Patrick and protesters who waved signs at the sheriffs’ State House press conference do not think a stronger bond with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents is needed.

“This is racial profiling. It is designed to detain and deport criminals, but the fingerprints of undocumented people who have not broke the law will also be available,” said Lynn resident and immigration advocacy group Centro Presente organizer Jose A. Palma, who took part in the protest.

Patrick told The Daily Item on Tuesday that the state is already using the fingerprint identification tools and other federal resources to identify illegal immigrants breaking laws in Massachusetts.

“We enforce our laws, we do not monitor our border. Violent crime should be the focus of law enforcement. ICE’s job is immigration,” the governor said.

Cousins said a partnership between sheriffs and ICE will allow his corrections employees to begin deportation proceedings against the 123 criminal aliens identified, as of this week, in the Middleton jail.

Under an agreement with immigration officials, four to eight sheriff’s workers could be trained in ICE procedures.

Cousins wrote to Department of Homeland Security Director John Morton on Tuesday asking for permission to forge an agreement between the Sheriff’s Department and ICE under federal law Section 287(g).

“The Sheriff’s Department is willing, prepared and committed to assist in your Department’s effort to investigate, apprehend and detail aliens pursuant to this statue,” wrote Cousins.

By 2013, local and state law enforcement agencies, the FBI and ICE will share information, including details on immigration status.

But Worcester County Sheriff Lewis Evangelidis and other sheriffs said the Aug. 20 death of a Milford man in a traffic accident police said was caused by an illegal immigrant proves sheriffs cannot wait two years to access federal information.

“There is information available through Homeland Security data bases not instantly transmitted back to booking desks,” Evangelidis said.

Palma said individuals who have not become legal immigrants or completed required immigrant documentation procedures will be afraid to report crimes or contact the police if they think a stronger law enforcement bond with ICE will highlight their immigration status.

“I know the police have that concern,” he said.

Palma said the sheriffs’ proposal could potentially result in deportation of a domestic violence victim who is identified and interviewed by police after reporting the crime. Evangelidis said concerns about law-abiding undocumented immigrants shying away from reporting crimes is “not a reason” to delay forging agreements with immigration officials.

“It starts with being an illegal,” he said.

Palma declined to identify his immigration status but said he moved from El Salvador to the U.S. 13 years ago and graduated from North Shore Community College last year. He said the bigger problem facing communities and the state is how to allow law-abiding immigrants who contribute to their communities become citizens.

“I have one little piece of paper that allows me to remain in the U.S. People doing the right thing are not allowed to apply for documentation and citizenship,” Palma said.

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