Legislature OKs bill requiring sheriffs to partner with federal authorities to enforce immigration laws

AUSTIN (Nexstar) — The Texas legislature gave the final approval of Senate Bill 8, which will require almost every single county in the state to partner with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to enforce federal immigration laws. It’s a move supporters say will keep Texans safe while aligning the state with the Trump administration on strict immigration enforcement. Opponents argue it could lead to overcrowding in jails, a chilling effect on reporting crimes, and racial profiling in minority communities.

After going through various changes throughout the legislative process, lawmakers in both chambers finally came to an agreement on the final language of the bill a day before a deadline that would have killed the bill before getting to the governor’s desk.

SB 8 would require every sheriffs department in a county that operates a jail, or contracts with a private jail, to enter into an agreement with ICE known as 287(g). Currently in Texas there are 234 counties that this bill applies to, according to the bill’s author State Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown.

“Texas needs to be much more proactive in identifying, detaining, prosecuting and deporting criminal illegal aliens,” Schwertner said.

The 287(g) program allows sheriff’s deputies to assume some ICE duties, like questioning migrants, issuing warrants or arresting them for immigration violations, depending on their specific training. There are three models within the 287(g) program a law enforcement agency can enter into. They include:

• Jail Enforcement Model – allows officers to question people to determine immigration status, put their information into a Homeland Security database, take statements and begin the deportation process with an immigration detainer and notice to appear.
• Warrant Service Officer – a narrower scope than jail enforcement, with officers identifying people as non-citizens during the booking process, referring those people to ICE for evaluation and possible deportation, and serving ICE administrative warrants on people in their custody, according to the ACLU.
• Task Force Model – described by ICE as a “force multiplier,” allowing local officers to enforce immigration laws during their routine duties in the community.

The final version of the bill gives discretion to sheriffs to decide which of the three models it will enter into with ICE. Sheriffs could decide to enter into more than one type of model, but it is not required to have more than one.

It also provides a grant program to help counties cover the cost of training staff or operating the program. The grant amount ranges between $80,000 and $140,000 depending on the size of the county.

In laying out the bill on the Senate floor, Schwertner said it sends a clear message. “Texas will not tolerate criminal illegal aliens threatening our communities,” Schwertner said. But Democratic members in the Senate raised concerns with the bill. It passed along party lines in the Senate.

Chilling effect on crime reporting

Opponents of the 287(g) program have argued the incorporation of local law enforcement in federal immigration enforcement will lead many people to not call in the case of emergency out of fear it could lead to them or their family being deported.

“That’s an issue that I have, that we’re going to potentially drive immigrants into the shadows, and you know, make them victims, or have them a bull’s eye of potential crimes,” State Sen. José Menéndez, D – San Antonio, said to Schwertner on the Senate floor.

Schwertner argued it would not prevent lawfully present citizens from calling the police in an emergency. “The people of the United States and of Texas spoke very clearly last November regarding their concerns of illegal immigration and the concerns of criminal illegal aliens doing great harm to communities,” Schwertner said.

But Menéndez pointed there are some families with mixed status, where the parents may not lawfully be in the country but their children are. “If people understand that that family, there’s an undocumented person, they have a target now, because people know, well, they won’t call the police because there’s an undocumented person in that household,” Menéndez explained.

Concerns over jail capacity

Another concern is the capacity in Texas jails. The 287(g) program would require counties place an immigration detainer on an inmate that is deemed to be in the country illegally. Opponents argue this would be costly for counties to hold on to somebody in the jail and wait for federal immigration officials to pick them up. There’s also an issue of space.

According to data from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, between January and February this year there were 7,481 inmates in Texas jails with an immigration detainer placed on them. Those inmates spent a total of 156,494 days in jail, which averages out to about 21 days per inmate in jail. The total cost to the state is estimated to be more than $14 million, according to the data.

“What are we going to do when these jails must have a 287(g) agreement with the federal government to hold people who are not rapists, murderers or people who have been involved in aggravated assault, they are just people who are not here legally,” State Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D – Austin, said to Schwertner on the Senate floor.

“They are criminals, in the sense they are illegal aliens. The program does allow for expedite transfer to ICE to properly adjudicate those individuals,” Schwertner responded.

Concerns of racial profiling

Many opponents to the bill have pointed out concerns with the task force model within the 287(g) program. That model, as Schwertner explained, allows non-federal law enforcement, such as sheriff’s deputies, to enforce immigration laws within the community as opposed to inside a jail. Some believe it will lead to racial profiling in minority communities.

“Are you not afraid of the potentiality for racial profiling by police if they see what presumably looks like Mexican or Hispanic people in a truck that they will not be pulled over simply because of the color of their skin,” State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, asked Schwertner.

Schwertner agreed racial biases do exist in the world, but argued the sheriffs department and ICE would have oversight on who they place in a task force model. “Through the 287(g) program task force model, there is training to address the concerns of racial profiling, there are procedures,” Schwertner said.