ICE ‘Task Force’ Agreements Expand to Galveston, Beaumont

Nearly million Texans now live in jurisdictions where sheriffs or police chiefs have agreed to train selected of their officers to act as immigration agents in the streets of their communities These agreements at the moment cover around Texas law enforcement agencies including the sheriff s departments in the populous counties of Jefferson and Smith home to Beaumont and Tyler sheriffs in sparsely populated South Texas Counties along much of the corridor from the Rio Grande Valley to San Antonio and municipal police departments in the small towns of Nixon and Splendora Last week the sheriff s office in Galveston County where more than people live also inked an agreement making it the largest part populous local jurisdiction in Texas to sign one so far These arrangements are what are known as g task force model agreements which essentially deputize local cops as federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE agents after they ve received training Officers gain the powers to interrogate any alien or person assumed to be an alien as to his right to be or remain in the United States arrest without a warrant anyone the officer believes is in the United States in violation of law and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained execute warrants for immigration violations and prepare immigration charging documents When exercising this newfound authority local officers must seek guidance from an ICE supervisor but are allowed to do so as soon as is practicable after exercising the authority ICE pays for the required training but does not reimburse local agencies for their time spent enforcing immigration law Two other forms of g agreements exist both are limited to the county jail setting and have sparked far less argument than the task force model which was revived by President Donald Trump earlier this year more than a decade after it was terminated amid disagreement over racial profiling Since Trump s inauguration ICE has inked more than new g agreements nationwide including more than task forces The full list which is updated frequently is available on ICE s website The administration is doing everything attainable to arrest and deport as a large number of immigrants as manageable including those who have pending applications or court processes to obtain protection mentioned Adriel Orozco senior procedures counsel at the American Immigration Council Given the well-documented history of racial profiling particularly related to the task force model but also the use of the partnership to funnel suspected immigrants into jails this expansion will likely lead to an enduring distrust of these institutions Orozco announced the scheme may soon be supercharged by Congress latest tax cuts-and-spending bill HR which contains billion for ICE detention and removal operations The bill authorizes new spending on the g activity and an earlier House version of the measure specified the amount as million Those funds are expected to go to salaries for supervising ICE agents and the costs to conduct g training Orozco mentioned but not reimbursement of local law enforcement partners ICE did not respond to questions or a request for comment In June Governor Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill which will require nearly all Texas sheriffs to request and sign g agreements with ICE by the end of next year The law does not specify what type of g agreement they must seek Two state agencies the attorney general s office and the National Guard have also signed task force agreements though neither agency answered Texas Observer questions about how they plan to work with ICE The Guard is also subject to a separate agreement per a different federal statute that was signed by the governor early this year and allows soldiers to enforce immigration law in tandem with Territory line Patrol In Texas the Observer has uncovered that ICE has begun rolling out the required training for its task force partners In Smith County nestled in East Texas piney woods Sheriff Larry Smith reported that he and two dozen deputies have finalized their -hour online training But the county s top cop is still not sure what their next actions are We re waiting to hear from ICE or the Department of Homeland Precaution to see what threshold that they might want to work with us in and then go from there he declared Despite the task force undertaking s checkered past of racial profiling Smith mentioned his deputies won t start policing based on skin color We re not going to stop somebody the subsequent day and if they look like they re of Hispanic heritage we re not going to ask them Let me see your papers Are you here legally Are you not here legally We re going to ask to see their driver s license if we re stopping that truck and now if they don t have a driver s license then go with further attempts that you try to determine who they are Over in Brooks County Sheriff Urbino Benny Martinez reported most of of his deputies hadn t completed the training process yet Matt Benacci spokesperson for the Kinney County Sheriff s Office which has been subject to criticism in modern years for its cozy relationship with vigilante groups announced he was unsure if training had begun Deputies in Jefferson County home to residents have not yet completed training a chief deputy explained and neither had those in Galveston County according to a sheriff s sergeant In one incident the Observer revealed that ICE had incorrectly listed an agency as having signed a g task enforcement agreement in its public-facing spreadsheet In early July the four-officer police department of Southside Place a wealthy enclave city of residents thoroughly surrounded by Houston was marked as having a task force deal They might be getting ahead of their skis commented Southside Place Police Chief Don McCall reached by phone on July This is something that has to be presented to city council and we don t even meet with city council till next month ICE later removed his department from its list of participating agencies Then on Tuesday McCall reported the Observer that because he s planning to retire at the end of the year he d decided not to pursue the task force agreement with ICE anymore The post ICE Task Force Agreements Expand to Galveston Beaumont appeared first on The Texas Observer