A Texas sheriff is looking to aid President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in deporting illegal immigrants through new measures.
Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn announced his department is applying for a federal government-locality agreement known as the 287(g) program. The agreement would enable his deputies to be trained to handle illegal immigrants and detain them until Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers can take over the cases.
“When they commit crimes against our people, it becomes our business,” Sheriff Waybourn told CBS DFW News.
Under Waybourn’s and the federal government’s agreement, Tarrant County Sheriff officers will be able to not only check inmates’ immigration statuses, but also detain illegal immigrants arrested and hand them over to ICE for deportation.
Normally, two ICE agents are placed in the Tarrant County Jail Monday through Friday to check inmates’ immigration statuses. But, Waybourn says many illegal immigrants inmates slip by the agents, as they are not available on weekends.
“If somebody comes in the jail on a Friday evening and bonded out on a Sunday, they missed it. They weren’t here,” Sheriff Waybourn said.
The agreement will appoint 12 Tarrant County Sheriff deputies to do the jobs 24 hours per day, seven days a week, checking immigration statuses, detaining illegal immigrants, and handing those individuals over to ICE.
The move by the Tarrant County Sheriff is in sharp contrast to the action taken this month by Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez who now faces the loss of state funding after changing her department’s policies regarding honoring immigration detainers, Breitbart Texas’s Bob Price reported. Her refusal to cooperate with immigration officials except in a small number of circumstances will cost the taxpayers of Travis County $1.5 million in state law enforcement grants after Governor Greg Abbott pulled the plug on her funding.
The new spring of American sheriffs looking to help the Trump administration deport illegal immigrants is not unique to Texas counties.
Bristol County, Massachusetts Sheriff Thomas Hodgson signed a similar agreement so that his officers would be able to identify and interview illegal immigrants arrested, as Breitbart Texas reported.
Similarly, Plymouth County, Massachusetts Sheriff Joseph McDonald was blasted by the open borders lobby for striking the same deal with the federal government, as Breitbart Texas reported.
Open border activists from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) targeted the Plymouth County’s agreement with the federal government as an effort they claim strips illegal aliens of their rights, despite their immigration status.
John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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