Report: Trump Admin To Give Sheriff’s More Power To Enforce Federal Immigration Laws

Well, this could get really interesting, especially when leftist states try and stop their law enforcement from performing the law

Trump plans to give local sheriffs more power to act as immigration agents amid mass deportation crackdown

President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration is weighing giving local sheriffs more powers to help boot illegal migrants from the US by expanding a federal program to allow them to act as immigration agents.

As part of his mass migrant deportation crackdown, Trump’s team is aiming to expand the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 287(g) program so deputies can question and detain suspected illegals during their routine duties, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the plan.

Currently, 287(g) — which was added to the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1996 under President Bill Clinton — permits ICE to collaborate with state and local law enforcement to identify and deport “incarcerated criminal noncitizens.”

The program, which is voluntary, essentially allows participating local agencies to alert ICE of an illegal migrant in their custody or hold the migrant in jail for immigration authorities — but only after the alleged perps have been arrested on separate criminal charges.

The Trump administration’s reported expansion, however, would revive a task force model, which had previously allowed deputies and officers to make immigration stops and arrests.

I would assume that this will also be extended to local law enforcement in some fashion. They and sheriffs will have greater knowledge of people in their community, and know which ones to target, especially the troublemakers who may not have been arrested (yet). Will local and sheriffs do this in sanctuary jurisdictions which forbid this? Will they claim that federal law supersedes local/state law on this?

Jonathan Thompson, the executive director of the nonpartisan National Sheriffs’ Association, told The Post that sheriffs across the country are willing to provide the support to the incoming Trump administration.

However, it  will not be done “overnight,” he said, adding that sheriffs will need federal funding to implement the initiative.

“It has to be much more realistic as to what it takes to house these individuals, feed and clothe them, take care of their health care. There’s a lot of money at stake here. We’re going to be very vocal with the president and with Congress to say if you’re doing this, you’re going to have to pay for it,” Thompson said.

It should also be fun when Democrats vote against providing funding for this. Even as criminals and gang members cause problems in Democratic run sanctuary cities.

An executive order signed by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2017 designated New York as a “sanctuary state,” which limits state law enforcement’s cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

However, the executive order only applies to state law enforcement officers or employees — meaning that in counties that don’t pass their own sanctuary policies, a sheriff’s office can choose to cooperate with ICE.

In 2018, a New York state appeals court ruled that it is illegal for local law enforcement to hold a person in jail beyond their release date to wait for ICE to take them into custody, but there is nothing stopping police or a sheriff’s office from notifying ICE about an arrest, The Intercept explained.

Well, I guess that’s why the focus is on sheriffs, not local. But, how many sheriffs are in more urbanized counties, especially in the Northeast?

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