Under a federal program that officials say makes the public safer, local governments across the US have become immigration enforcers. However, critics say the program spreads fear, breaks down trust, and threatens the very structure of immigrant communities.
The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 set up the 287(g) program, which lets ICE give state and local police officers specific immigration enforcement tasks to do while being supervised by ICE.
Some people see the program as a way for President Donald Trump to step up his fight against illegal immigrants at the same time that the Department of Justice is moving to bring charges against state and local officials who are thought to be getting in the way of that fight.
In a news release released Monday, the Department of Homeland Security talked about how federal and local police worked together to catch nearly 800 illegal immigrants over the course of four days.
“Operational Tidal Wave,” as the press release called it, is “a sneak peek of what’s to come across the country: large-scale operations that use our state and local law enforcement partners to get criminal illegal immigrants off our streets.”
The 287(g) program has been around for almost 30 years and was the subject of a case against one of America’s most notorious sheriffs. It has been used more during Trump’s second term as part of his effort to keep a campaign promise to deal with immigration.
ICE says that the program lets them work with local police in three different ways: the Jail Enforcement Model, the Task Force Model, and the Warrant Service Officer program.
ICE says that the Jail Enforcement Model lets your officers find and process removable aliens who are in your jail or detention centre and have pending or ongoing criminal charges while they are there.
The Task Force Model lets local police enforce some immigration rules while doing their regular jobs, as long as ICE is watching. ICE says that it pays for the full Warrant Service Officer Program, which trains local police officers to serve administrative immigration warrants on people who are being held by them.
There are agreements between ICE and state law enforcement agencies that want to join the program. These agreements must be signed before the agencies can join the program.
The American Immigration Council says that memorandums of agreement are agreements made between the Department of Homeland Security and local law enforcement agencies. They give some state and local officers federal immigration enforcement powers, like entering data into ICE’s database and case management system, talking to people about their immigration status, accessing DHS databases, and giving out immigration detainers.