New federal directives aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration and border-related crime may appear straightforward, but how they are received by local law enforcement is far from simple.
The sheriffs of Cochise, Pima and Yuma counties generally support the Trump administration’s evolving border policy, which took a leap forward last week with a memorandum from Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly. The sheriff of Santa Cruz County, on the other hand, has a more critical view of the policy.
Although all four sheriffs support Kelly’s plan to fight cross-border criminal networks, they all balk at the idea of enforcing immigration laws.
And various directives in the memo give the border sheriffs pause.
Kelly ordered the hiring of 5,000 more Border Patrol agents, spurring Santa Cruz County Sheriff Antonio Estrada to ask: Why isn’t the federal government hiring more customs officers to catch hard drugs smuggled through ports of entry?
Kelly also ordered the expansion of a program that allows local officers to enforce immigration laws and act as a “force multiplier” for federal agencies.
But Pima County Sheriff Mark Napier said his department doesn’t have the resources to enforce immigration laws, and he considers immigration a federal responsibility.
Kelly’s directive to increase detention facilities near the U.S.-Mexico border “to the greatest extent possible” is part of a larger effort to end the Border Patrol’s practice of “catch and release.”
Meanwhile, Yuma County Sheriff Leon Wilmot wants the federal government to reimburse Arizona border counties for housing inmates in county jails who are in the country illegally — a cost that he said created a $30 million annual deficit in recent years.
Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels questioned why arrests made by federal agents in cases of cross-border crime — about one-third of the roughly 200 inmates at the county jail at any one time — are handled by county prosecutors, rather than the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Dannels also questioned the foundation of the federal government’s policy since the 1990s, which pushes illegal border crossings into rural areas and makes Cochise a “flow-through” county for criminal activity.
President Trump’s proposed wall “couldn’t hurt,” Dannels said, but he noted there are “many kinds of barriers,” including the barrier created by law enforcement officers.
These are the waters the Trump administration dipped into last week as it seeks to fulfill an executive order issued by the president on Jan. 25.
Little will change in the near future in border counties, the sheriffs said. For the time being, they are waiting to see what else comes down from the federal government.
Napier said he is “happy Trump is applying more resources to the border.” Wilmot said the memo shows Kelly is “paying attention to the boots on the ground.” Dannels said he likes that Trump has “shown the will to do something” on the border.
Estrada, the lone Democrat among the Arizona border sheriffs, said the new policies are “terrorizing” border residents.
The policies are spreading “fear and panic in people, and that’s not what this country is about,” Estrada said.
In the meantime, all four sheriffs lauded the Border Patrol’s efforts in their counties and said they looked forward to cooperating with federal authorities on border issues.
However, they said they had no intention of conducting immigration raids.
Enforcing immigration laws
In his memo, Kelly directed federal agencies to expand partnerships with local law enforcement to stem illegal immigration and cross-border crime.
Specifically, Kelly pointed to the 287(g) program, which is named after a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that allows local officers to be trained by federal agencies to identify people in the country illegally and process them for removal from the United States.
None of the four border counties take part in the 287(g) program that Kelly directed federal agencies to expand “immediately.”
The Arizona Department of Corrections, Mesa Police Department, Pinal County Sheriff’s Office and Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office signed agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2016 to alert ICE when detention officers come across an inmate who is in the country illegally. Nationwide, 37 agencies signed similar agreements with ICE. All of those are jail-based programs.
The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office declined a request for an interview, but spokeswoman Navideh Forghani said the Sheriff’s Office will continue to run the 287(g) program in its jail as it has done for years and notify federal agencies when deputies come across violations of immigration law.
Along the border, sheriffs see little need for the program as long as thousands of Border Patrol agents work in their counties.
The 287(g) program is “not something that fits here,” Estrada said, adding one reason for the expansion of the program is that state warrants are easier to get than federal warrants.
Wilmot and Dannels said the program could be effective in non-border states where local agencies can’t count on support from the Border Patrol.
Wilmot said his office doesn’t have the manpower to enforce immigration laws, but he regularly lets ICE agents into the jail to check for inmates who are in the country illegally.
Secure Communities
Kelly also ordered the resurrection of the Secure Communities program, which began in 2008 under the Bush administration and was canceled in 2014 by the Obama administration.
Both programs involved sending fingerprints taken at local jails to the FBI and then to the Department of Homeland Security, where they were run through a database of immigration violators. ICE would then request a detainer to hold inmates beyond the release date and take custody of them.
However, under the Obama administration’s Priority Enforcement Program, ICE would only request detainers if the inmate was convicted of specific crimes, such as gang activity.
Napier said he wasn’t familiar with the programs, but under his department’s policy, when ICE agents request a detainer on an inmate, they are notified when detention officers start the process of releasing the inmate. That gives ICE a few hours to pick up the inmate at the jail. If they don’t, the inmate is released.
However, such a policy would violate state law if a bill that passed the Arizona House Thursday is approved by the state Senate and signed into law. The bill orders public officials to comply with detainers requested by federal immigration officials or face daily fines ranging from $500 to $5,000.
Wilmot said he is glad Secure Communities is back. “It worked,” he said.
He called the Obama administration’s program a “total failure” that let dangerous criminals out into the community, a thought echoed by Dannels.
