Latest news with #287g
Fox News
3 days ago
- General
- Fox News
Trump immigration enforcement hampered by detention capacity, Florida sheriff warns
A Florida sheriff said law enforcement is "waiting at go" to assist the Trump administration with immigration enforcement, but worries about the lack of detention capacity. Fox News Digital spoke with Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd on the current status of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. "We heard President Trump loud and clear when he said start with the worst first, and let's get these illegal aliens out of the country," Judd said. However, the sheriff pointed to a significant bottleneck: the lack of federal capacity to detain migrants, and that, despite arrests, "they're turned [migrants] back into the street" due to ICE's limited resources. Judd pointed to the lack of holding facilities and the complications arising from federal rules, which generally prevent local jails from holding migrants for more than 48 hours after their release from local custody unless the jails have Intergovernmental Service Agreements (IGSAs) that allow for longer detention under federal authority. "You see, county jails can hold them [migrants] short term if we have accompanying criminal charges, but we can't hold them long term," he said. "We're more than willing to do that with the federal government once the federal government recognizes that we're helping them — they're not helping us." WATCH: The need for additional detention space and resources came as the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) became the first in the nation to train and deploy troopers under the federal 287(g) agreement, which authorizes designated state officers to enforce immigration law in partnership with federal agents. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says the initiative is already delivering results and believes it could serve as a blueprint for other states seeking to take immigration enforcement into their own hands. Judd called for federal executive action, saying, "The president is the only one that can break this logjam." The Sunshine State, he said, is prepared to execute practical solutions, such as setting up temporary "soft side housing" for detainees, modeled after hurricane emergency shelters. "We're eager to make it happen. We're sitting on go," he said, while criticizing the lack of support. "The federal government doesn't have the infrastructure to hold them, nor are they willing to pay when we offer the infrastructure." Judd defended ICE personnel, acknowledging their efforts despite what he describes as inherited limitations from the previous Biden administration. "But they are limited," he said. "They're severely limited because they're operating with the resources that the Biden administration left them with. And the Biden administration wasn't into deporting people. They were into importing people." The sheriff said stricter detention policies will serve as a deterrent for migrants. "We've got to stop the game playing, and only the federal government can do it," he said. Fox News Digital has reached out to ICE for comment.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Tennessee Republican lawmakers urge local police to work with ICE, help with deportations
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Some Tennessee Republicans are urging every local and state law enforcement agency to enter into a 287(g) agreement with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to help the federal government in its effort to deport illegal immigrants. A 287(g) agreement gives local law enforcement officers certain federal powers that allow them to detain and investigate undocumented immigrants. 'The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 added Section 287(g) to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) — authorizing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to delegate to state and local law enforcement officers the authority to perform specified immigration officer functions under the agency's direction and oversight,' ICE's website reads. Rep. Lee Reeves (R-Franklin) called upon all agencies in Tennessee to enter into the agreement Monday. 'We need more than strong words. We need local action as well, so to every police chief, every sheriff, every mayor, every county commissioner, now is the time to enter into a 287(g) agreement with ICE. It's a simple partnership that lets local law officers identify and detain criminal illegal aliens. It's legal, it works, and it will save lives.' According to ICE, eight Tennessee agencies currently have a 287(g) agreement. The majority of the agencies are sheriff's offices, in addition to the TN Dept. of Homeland Security and THP. Three additional state agencies currently have pending 287(g) applications, according to ICE. During a special legislative session in January, lawmakers passed a bill incentivizing departments to participate in the program by offering grants to those who take part. 'This legislation further appropriated $20 million to facilitate participation in the 287g program to make our brave men and women even more effective in that partnership,' Senate Majority Leader, Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) said. Congressman Andy Ogles confirms federal investigation into Nashville mayor's office over illegal immigration A bill that would have required all law enforcement agencies to take part in the program failed during the regular legislative session. Some immigrant rights groups worry that the more departments work with ICE, the more harm it could cause. 'What we have seen time and time again with programs like the 287(g) program is the erroding of trust between our immigrant communities and local law enforcement, the siphoning away of local taxpayer dollars for civil rights lawsuits, racial profiling, and we have seen this not only here in the past in Nashville, but across the state of Tennessee,' Luis Mata with the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition said. Davidson County ended its 287(g) agreement with ICE in 2012 following controversy and a lawsuit over the handling of a pregnant woman who gave birth while shackled in county custody. It's unclear if the agency plans to enter into a new contract with ICE. However, Republican lawmakers told reporters the 287(g) agreement saves lives. ⏩ 'This isn't about politics, it's about protecting our families,' Rep. Reeves said. 'It's not about immigration, it's about crime. It's not a border crisis, it is a community crisis.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Texas House considers mandate for local sheriffs departments to partner with federal immigration authorities
AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Texas House members will debate a variety of legislation on Saturday, ranging from requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms to requiring certain sheriff's departments to partner with federal authorities in immigration enforcement, the latter of which has sparked a lot of attention on the Capitol. Senate Bill 8 would mandate sheriffs' offices in counties with a population above 100,000 to enter into an agreement with Immigration Customs and Enforcement's (ICE) 287(g) program. It passed the Texas Senate on April 1. The 287(g) program allows non-federal law enforcement members to assume some ICE duties. There are three different models underneath the program: Jail Enforcement – allows officers to question people to determine immigration status, put their information into a Homeland Security database, take statements and begin the deportation process with an immigration detainer and notice to appear. Warrant Service Officer – a narrower scope than jail enforcement, with officers identifying people as non-citizens during the booking process, referring those people to ICE for evaluation and possible deportation, and serving ICE administrative warrants on people in their custody, according to the ACLU. Task Force Model – described by ICE as a 'force multiplier,' allowing local officers to enforce immigration laws during their routine duties in the community. The number of 287(g) agreements soared across the country after President Donald Trump won re-election in November, campaigning on a promise to deport undocumented people from the country. The bill, authored by State Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, would provide a state-funded grant program to help counties under one million in population to pay for the training associated with joining the program. Counties over the one million threshold would be required to fund it from their own budget. 'It's time for Texas to take a very bold and powerful stance against criminal aliens and illegal immigration,' Schwertner explained. He said the goal of the program is to get criminals out of Texas communities. Critics of the bill call it an unfunded mandate and a racist bill that would erode trust with the local law enforcement and minority communities. Groups like the Workers Defense Action Fund (WDAF) protested inside the Capitol rotunda on Saturday morning. David Chincanchan, the policy director for WDAF, explained he feels the 287(g) program leads to racial profiling. 'It would prevent our local sheriffs from being able to focus on keeping the community safe, on serving the needs of their constituents, and instead, it would force them to act in the role of essentially ICE agents, and it would force them to be complicit in the separation of families in our own neighborhoods,' Chincanchan said. The bill is also facing criticism from local sheriff's offices who are worried about the cost of the program. It would require sending a deputy or correctional officer out-of-state to get trained for about a month, creating a burden on departments that have a lack of staffing to begin with. Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne, who serves as Legislative Chairman for the Sheriff's Association of Texas, testified on that fact in March during a committee hearing. 'We think that financial relief portion shouldn't be in a grant program, it should just be a part of the program,' Hawthorne testified. 'And it should cover all 254 counties that get into the program.' Hawthorne said it costs $10,000 to train each officer in his department. Calhoun County Sheriff Bobbie Vickery shares the same concerns. His county of about 25,000 people joined the 287(g) program in 2017 and said it 'works very well,' but he, too worried about the cost. 'This could potentially put a very harsh monetary strain on our budgets every year,' Vickery testified. The grant program would not cover the state's biggest counties with more than one million people. When asked about opponents to his legislation, Schwertner said, 'I ask them if they want criminal aliens running around and causing violence and crime against citizens that they know, Texans they know, and I would hope their answer would be no.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Washington Post
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
The revival of an old program delegates Trump immigration enforcement to local police
As part of the Trump administration's push to carry out mass deportations, the agency responsible for immigration enforcement has aggressively revived and expanded a decades-old program that delegates immigration enforcement powers to state and local law enforcement agencies. Under the 287(g) program led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement , police officers can interrogate immigrants in their custody and detain them for potential deportation .
The Independent
20-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
The revival of an old program delegates Trump immigration enforcement to local police
As part of the Trump administration's push to carry out mass deportations, the agency responsible for immigration enforcement has aggressively revived and expanded a decades-old program that delegates immigration enforcement powers to state and local law enforcement agencies. Under the 287(g) program led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, police officers can interrogate immigrants in their custody and detain them for potential deportation. Since President Donald Trump took office in January, ICE has rapidly expanded the number of signed agreements it has with law enforcement agencies across the country. The reason is clear. Those agreements vastly beef up the number of immigration enforcement staff available to ICE, which has about 6,000 deportation officers, as they aim to meet Trump's goal of deporting as many of the roughly 11 million people in the country illegally as they can. Here's a look at what these agreements are and what critics say about them: What is a 287(g) agreement and what's the benefit to ICE? These agreements are signed between a law enforcement agency and ICE and allow the law enforcement agency to perform certain types of immigration enforcement actions. There are three different types of agreements. —Under the 'jail services model,' law enforcement officers can screen people detained in jails for immigration violations. —The 'warrant service officer' model authorizes state and local law enforcement officers to comply with ICE warrants or requests on immigrants while they are at their agency's jails. —The 'task force model' gives local officers the ability to investigate someone's immigration status during their routine police duties. These agreements were authorized by a 1996 law, but it wasn't until 2002 that the federal government actually signed one of these agreements with a local agency. The first agreement was with Florida 's Department of Law Enforcement. 'The benefit to ICE is that it expands the ability to enforce immigration law across multiple jurisdictions,' said John Torres, who served as acting director of ICE from 2008 to 2009. Earlier in his career, he said, he was assigned to the Los Angeles jail and would interview any foreign citizen who came through the jail to see if they were in the country illegally. But if a jail has a 287(g) agreement with ICE it frees up those agents at the jail to do something else. What's going on with these agreements under the Trump administration? The number of signed agreements has ballooned under Trump in a matter of months. In December of last year, ICE had 135 agreements with law enforcement agencies across 21 states. By May 19, ICE had signed 588 agreements with local and state agencies across 40 states, with an additional 83 agencies pending approval. Roughly half of the pacts are in Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis recently announced the arrest of more than 1,100 immigrants in an orchestrated sweep between local and federal officials. Texas, where Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has also allied himself with Trump on immigration, comes in second. Other states topping the list are Georgia and North Carolina. A majority of the agreements are with sheriff's departments, a reflection of the fact that they are largely responsible for running jails in America. But other agencies have also signed the agreements including the Florida and Texas National Guard, the Florida Department of Lottery Services and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The expansion of agreements 'has been unprecedented in terms of the speed and the breath,' said Amien Kacou, attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union in Florida. 'ICE under the Trump administration has made a push in every state essentially to have them cooperate," Kacou said. So what are the concerns? Immigrants, and their attorneys and advocates say these agreements can lead to racial profiling and there's not enough oversight. 'If you are an immigrant, or if you sound like an immigrant or you look like an immigrant, you are likely to be detained here in Florida,' said Felipe Sousa-Lazaballet, executive director at Hope Community Center in Apopka, central Florida. These concerns are especially acute over the task force model since those models allow law enforcement officers to carry out immigration enforcement actions as part of their daily law enforcement work. Lena Graber, a senior staff attorney with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center which advocates for immigrants, said that the Obama administration phased out the task force model in 2012 after concerns that law enforcement organizations authorized under it were racially profiling people when making arrests. The first Trump administration considered bringing back that model but ultimately did not, she said. Graber said using this model, the local law enforcement have most of the powers of ICE agents. 'They're functionally ICE agents,' she said. Rights groups say that in areas where 287(g) agreements are in place, people in the country illegally are less likely to reach out to law enforcement authorities when they're victims of or witness to a crime for fear that authorities will turn around and arrest them instead. 'This is finding methods to terrorize communities,' said Katie Blankenship, an immigration attorney and co-founder of Sanctuary of the South. 'They create immigration enforcement and local law enforcement which they are not trained or able to do in any sort of just manner.' Federal authorities and local law enforcement agencies deny those critics and maintain that officers follow the laws when detaining people. 'There is no racial profiling,' said Miami Border Patrol chief agent Jeffrey Dinise at a recent press conference along with Florida and ICE officials. He explained that officers may stop cars after traffic violations. They run the tag plates through immigration systems and can see the legal status of the person, he said. Torres also said that local law enforcement officers operating under 287(g) agreements aren't 'out on an island by themselves.' There's a lot of coordination with ICE agents and the local law enforcement officers. 'They're not asking them to operate independently on their own,' Torres said. How does law enforcement join? Law enforcement agencies nominate officers to participate in the 287(g) program. They have to be U.S. citizens and pass a background check. On its website, ICE has created templates of the forms that law enforcement agencies interested in joining the program can use. The training varies. According to ICE's website, officers in the 'task force model' must complete a 40-hour online course that covers such topics as immigration law, civil rights and liability issues. As of mid-March about 625 officers had been trained under that model, the website said, although that number is likely much higher now as law enforcement agencies are signing up regularly. For the 'jail enforcement model," there's a four week training as well as a refresher course. The Warrant Service Officer model requires eight hours of training. Austin Kocher, a researcher at Syracuse University in New York who focuses on immigration affairs, said that training has always been a challenge for the 287(g) program. It's expensive and often a strain on small departments to send them to a training center, so the training has gotten progressively shorter, he said.
