NC sheriff will hold immigrants for ICE under new program. It’s the first in the state
Some sheriffs in North Carolina have said they’ll ignore requests by federal immigration officials to hold immigrants facing removal in jail.
But the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office is taking the opposite approach.
The sheriff’s office announced a new program on Wednesday called the Federal Warrant Service Officer program, which allows deputies working in the county jail to serve federal arrest warrants on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Sheriff Samuel Scott Page said during a news conference.
It’s the first of its kind in North Carolina, according to a news release.
“The Warrant Service Officer program primarily allows sheriffs to assist ICE by serving ICE federal arrest warrants and subsequently transferring the criminal illegal alien directly into their custody,” Page said.
ICE launched the program in May 2019 as way to help local law enforcement agencies honor immigration detainers when state and local policies impede them, officials said in a news release at the time.
The program in Rockingham County is the 49th in the country, Henry Lucero, executive associate director of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, said during the press conference on Wednesday.
“Luckily this county is not a sanctuary jurisdiction like some counties in North Carolina who choose to not work with ICE and rather release criminals back into the communities,” he said.
Sheriffs in Mecklenburg and Wake Counties, among others, have said they won’t honor ICE detainers — documents from federal officials notifying local law enforcement of their intent to assume custody of an undocumented immigrant already jailed on criminal charges.
The individual may finish their sentence or post bond but if the sheriff’s office honors the detainer, they will be held for 48 hours while waiting for ICE take custody.
Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden has pointed to court decisions finding the detainers violate the 4th Amendment and said “distancing himself from ICE improves trust among the county’s immigrant communities,” the Charlotte Observer reported.
Lucero said immigration detainers are only a request and not codified by law, meaning some agencies can “choose not to cooperate.” The majority do, but he said between 200 and 300 don’t.
“It seems unfathomable but it is a request,” he said. “They have that option to not cooperate. But in the interest of public safety, why would you want to release a criminal to the street?”
Under the Federal Warrant Service Officer program in Rockingham County, 10 officers and supervisors are allowed to enforce immigration law with “limited federal immigration enforcement responsibilities,” the sheriff said.
“The warrant service officers will only make arrests within the confines of the jail in which they work, which is the Rockingham County Jail facility,” Page said.
That means they won’t be able go into the community on behalf of ICE, ask questions about where an individual was born or try to determine alienage, according to Lucero. The officers are only allowed to serve immigration warrants of arrest or removal on behalf of ICE to an individual at the point of release.
ICE agents must pick that person up from the jail within 48 hours or deputies will be required to release them, the sheriff clarified.
Since 2010, he said 373 criminally charged undocumented immigrants have come through Rockingham County Jail. Detainers for potential removal were issued on about 55 percent of him.
“We got to get away from the politics. This is not about politics,” Page said. “This is about protecting the citizens of our communities, and I will do that as long as I’m sheriff of Rockingham County.”
