Texas assists ICE

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Thursday, the 12th of June.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

First up, a new law in Texas pulls local police deeper into immigration enforcement.

The legislation requires local sheriffs to assist federal immigration agents to detain illegal immigrants.

Supporters say it’s about protecting public safety, but others warn it’ll damage trust between local police and the communities they serve.

BROWN: WORLD reporter Josh Schumacher has the story

JOSH SCHUMACHER: When an illegal immigrant is arrested for a criminal offense in Texas, that person is not automatically booked for deportation.

BENENSON: They're in the jail, they're set to be released, and ICE wants to take custody of them.

Laurence Benenson is with the National Immigration Forum. Right now, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials don’t have the manpower to arrest every illegal immigrant in the state. And when local cops arrest illegal immigrants for driving under the influence, trespassing, or other misdemeanor offenses, they often have to release them before ICE agents can come take them off their hands.

BENENSON: Somebody serves their time, it's the release date. Um, they get released. There’s no authority to hold them.

But Texas lawmakers want to change that. Senate Bill 8 would require county jails and sheriff’s departments to enter into what’s called Section 287(g) agreements with ICE. Under those agreements, local sheriffs will be able to re-arrest illegal immigrants who are about to be released and hold them until ICE comes to pick them up.

Benenson explains.

BENENSON: You have a deputized officer in the jail who can then say, I'm going to take custody of you on behalf of ICE. Now, because I'm serving under ICE, I can have you and then get you into the immigration, the removal process.

Right now, the program is voluntary. But if Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signs the bill into law, every county sheriff with a jail in his jurisdiction would be required to hand illegal immigrants in their custody over to ICE.

And Texas isn’t the first state working on this. In recent years, Florida and Georgia have passed similar laws. And the governors of Virginia and Louisiana have also ordered local police to help the federal government counter illegal immigration.

While supporters say Section 287(g) agreements provide officials with an easy way to get criminals off the streets, Benenson says it doesn’t generally catch the really dangerous criminals. The program more often catches those charged with low-level offenses, such as traffic infractions.

BENENSON: The program isn't like scooping up, like, people who commit violent crimes who otherwise aren’t being turned over, those people still can be transferred ICE custody, just not through the 287(g) program.

And Benenson says the fact that local police could turn anyone in to federal immigration authorities means that many community members may refuse to report crimes or work with local police. And that could jeopardize public safety.

BENENSON: This isn't just like the unauthorized or undocumented community. This could be family members or people who have a close relationship with someone who's undocumented, even if they themselves aren't at risk.

Additionally, it could burden local law enforcement with extra duties that make it harder to fulfill the responsibilities they already have.

BENENSON: Particularly if you're a small law enforcement agency, a small jurisdiction, you have 20 officers, you have four deputized to do this work, those are for officers who are now going to be focusing on federal immigration enforcement and not doing breaking-and-entering, or patrol, or other things in the community.

But supporters say the bill could actually have the opposite effect by getting criminals off the streets for good.

VAUGHAN: This effort is aimed at removing that small fraction of the illegal population who have been arrested for crimes already.

Jessica Vaughan is policy director at the Center for Immigration Studies. She says while there are fears of wider ramifications, Section 287(g) agreements can only be used against that small fraction.

VAUGHAN: People should be reassured that this is not a program that's going to have local cops going around arresting illegal alien school children or anything like that. It's, it's focused on the people who are already getting arrested and who are also in the country illegally.

With the Trump administration putting a higher priority on detaining and deporting criminal illegal immigrants, Vaughan says sheriffs have a greater incentive to join forces with ICE.

VAUGHAN: And so that's why we're seeing much more interest in this program now because they know that there's actually going to be follow-through by ICE at the federal level.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

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