Image Credit: ICE / Facebook
The Tennessee Conservative [By Adelia Kircher] –
Three more counties in Tennessee have joined the 287(g) program that allows local law enforcement to identify and arrest illegal immigrants in an effort to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department officially signed onto the program via the warrant service officer model on Wednesday, June 25th.
Both the Coffee County and Dyer County sheriff’s departments joined through the warrant service officer model on Wednesday, July 2nd.
There are three different 287(g) models that local and state law enforcement agencies can sign up for: warrant service officer (WSO), task force (TFM) and jail enforcement (JEM).
Under the WSO model, local officials are able to serve illegal immigrants already in jail with civil immigration warrants.
According to ICE, a warrant service officer is a law enforcement officer who serves and executes administrative warrants on immigrants in their agency’s jail.
Under JEM, jail and prison workers can identify and process individuals with criminal or pending criminal charges who have been arrested by state or local law enforcement agencies and lack U.S. citizenship.
The TFM on the other hand, acts as a “force multiplier” by combining state and local law enforcement efforts and allowing officers to enforce limited immigration authority during routine police enforcement duties.
This model “allows state and local agencies to carry out immigration enforcement activities in non-custodial settings while under ICE supervision and oversight” according to ICE.
A total of 14 counties across Tennessee are now participating in ICE’s 287(g) program including:
- Bradley County: jail enforcement model
- Giles County: warrant service officer
- Grainger County: warrant service officer
- Greene County: jail enforcement model
- Hamilton County: jail enforcement model
- Knox County: jail enforcement model
- Macon County: warrant service officer
- Morgan County: jail enforcement model
- Putnam County: jail enforcement model and task force model (latter as of June 24th)
- Sullivan County: warrant service officer
- Sumner County: warrant service officer
The Tennessee Department of Corrections and the Tennessee Highway Patrol, through the state Department of Homeland Security, are also participating through the WSO and task force models respectively.
As of Thursday, July 3rd, a total of 777 agencies across 40 states have signed onto the 287(g) program.
According to the ICE website, there are an additional 47 pending applications.
However, as the number of 287(g) participants continues to grow following President Donald Trump’s reelection, some local governments are not quite as enthused about the idea of cooperating with ICE.
Just last month, the Norris City Council was supposed to vote on a memorandum of understanding to become a participant in the 287(g) program.
This memorandum was reportedly similar to those agreed to by the Knox and Greene County sheriff’s departments, which utilize the jail enforcement model.
Law enforcement agencies utilizing this model are not actively seeking out and arresting or detaining illegal immigrants. They are instead tasked with identifying and processing illegal immigrants already arrested and in their custody on separate criminal charges or pending criminal charges.
However, according to Councilmember Loretta Painter, members ultimately voted to remove the memorandum from their agenda during a June 9th meeting and the city will not be joining the 287(g) program as of this article’s publication.
About the Author: Adelia Kirchner is a Tennessee resident and reporter for the Tennessee Conservative. Currently the host of Subtle Rampage Podcast, she has also worked for the South Dakota State Legislature and interned for Senator Bill Hagerty’s Office in Nashville, Tennessee. You can reach Adelia at adelia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
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Cities, cancers on the face of God’s green earth, most are dimmercrap ran.