Tennessee senate advances bill requiring sheriffs to hold ICE detainees for 48 hours

A bill requiring some Tennessee sheriffs’s departments to hold inmates sought by immigration enforcement for at least 48 hours beyond their normal release date advanced in the senate Wednesday. 

The bill (SB1486/HB2018) by Sen. Brent Taylor of Memphis and Rep. Mark Cochran of Englewood, both Republicans, originally would have required all Tennessee law enforcement agencies to retain inmates sought by ICE for at least 48 hours, whether the agencies had formally entered into so-called 287(g) cooperative agreements with the federal government or not. 

The amended bill, however, applies only to those sheriffs that have entered into the federal agreements. 

Thus far 53 sheriff offices in Tennessee have signed memorandums of understanding for the cooperative, 287(g) agreements. About a dozen other police departments and constables have also entered into these agreements. The legislation applies only to sheriffs, who operate county jails.

The Tennessee Legislature last year allocated $5 million in state grants to local law enforcement agencies to help defray the costs of the cooperative immigration agreements, which include incarceration expenses for housing inmates sought by ICE. As of March, 11 law enforcement agencies have landed the state grants, amounting to a total award of $1,212,434, according to a fiscal analysis accompanying the bill. 

The original legislation, before it was amended, drew pushback not only from law enforcement agencies that have opted not to partner with ICE, but because of its price tag. A fiscal note attached to the original legislation, requiring all law enforcement agencies to hold inmates for iCE, amounted to more than $2.6 million in the first year and to more than $5 million for each subsequent year.

In presenting the legislation to the Senate, Finance, Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday, Taylor noted the cost estimate for the amended version of the bill is not significant. The genesis of the bill, Taylor said, was that some jurisdictions were releasing inmates whose local criminal cases had been resolved without waiting for ICE officials to pick them up.