(NewsNation) — Nearly 70 local law enforcement agencies across the country are prepared to assist federal immigration officials with enforcement efforts as part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation mission.
An estimated 455 local departments have 287 (g) agreements in place, which allow them to assist agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement in apprehending immigrants who entered the United States illegally. The agreement allows local officers to bypass laws that prohibit local officers from participating in immigration enforcement.
However, another 66 law enforcement departments, including those in Ohio and Wyoming, are ready to provide officers to help with the effort.
Trump told NewsNation that securing the U.S.-Mexico border with the existing enforcement agents in place is not sustainable. He said that he would tap local sheriff’s offices to enter into agreements with ICE and other agencies.
However, as more local departments prepare to assist federal immigration enforcement, concerns have arisen that doing so will take away from their local policing duties in exchange for seeking out migrant criminals. But sheriffs who have pending 287 (g) contracts insist that’s not the case.
Sheriff Richard Jones of Butler County, Ohio, told NewsNation that despite agreeing to work with federal agencies, his deputies will not be conducting raids at churches or schools.
“We go into the churches and schools if somebody commits a crime,” Jones said. “We’re not going to go in and round people up, we’re not going to knock on their door and arrest people.”
Meanwhile, some residents in Laramie County, Wyoming, fear that the local sheriff’s office’s pending 287 (g) contract with ICE will change how deputies police the area.
Sheriff Brian Kozak told NewsNation that his department would only be certifying one or two deputies who will be working on human trafficking extradition assignments on the state’s highways. Kozak said that his department would be leaving other aspects of immigration enforcement to federal agents.
Kozak said that he is awaiting the completion of his department’s 287 (g) contract before his jail will begin housing about 50 to 100 migrants who are being detained by ICE. Jones, the Ohio sheriff, said his jail is already detaining about 180 migrants, which he was not doing at this time in March.
ICE officials announced in March that with nearly 42,000 migrants in detention, it has reached capacity for the space it has to house migrants.
The 287 (g) training program typically lasts about six weeks. However, Jones told NewsNation that White House border czar Tom Homan said that the program could be shortened to about a week to allow the local department to begin working with federal agents.