(Seguin) — The Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Office is getting a head start in what it says will likely be new federally mandated immigration enforcement inside its jail.
The Guadalupe County Commissioners Court on Tuesday approved a memorandum of agreement between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Office to train and certify select personnel to perform limited immigration officer functions within the jail and correctional facility.
Among the functions will be to identify and detain individuals for immigration violations. Explaining the process to court members Tuesday morning was Greg Martin, the assistant jail administrator.
“With Trump taking over, this 287(g) Program for ICE is taking off and we are trying to get in front of it. What we find is we have major corridors running between San Antonio and Houston relativity to San Antonio. We get people and ICE places detainers on those folks currently. Well, the really, really bad guys know that they have enough money and can get out of jail before that detainer is placed. What the 287(g) Program will allow us to do is fill that gap. That will take our officers and train them by ICE to check the data base, do the questionnaire and if found necessary, place a detainer on somebody in custody,” said Martin.
Martin says this agreement to allow local officers to act as an immigration enforcement agent will not extend beyond the jail facility.
“Now, there are four models that you can use. We are only looking at the jail model today. In the jail model, folks will already be in custody. We won’t’ be kicking in doors and taking people into jail. They are already there. All we would be doing is placing a detainer. Once our officers make that determination and their charges with us are done, then they go to ICE who goes through their legal process to make sure that they need to be deported before that occurs. So, we actually don’t affect deportations. All we do is place a detainer, so ICE has time to do what they need to do,” said Marin.
Martin says due to the status of current legislation, the sheriff’s office wanted to join the many other agencies who are also now moving in this same direction.
“One of the reasons it’s really important for us now is Senate Bill 8 just recently cleared the senate committee 9-0 and that bill would take this decision off your hands and tell us that we have to do it. If that occurs, I have talked with our ICE representative as of this morning and that will inundate their system and cause us to be further out on being approved for this program. We’d like to be approved for this program as soon as possible so that we can be in front of what this senate bill is going to do to us, and we are fairly confident the senate bill is going to go through,” said Martin.
Martin says a select set of officers will be the ones trained to oversee these new functions. He says not everyone will have this new authority.
“This is an extensive four-week program. Our folks will have to be selected, pass a federal background check, go to a four-week program and then they have a full week (for credentials) after that. We have a whole team dedicated to us in San Antonio. I’ve talked to him this morning. I have the cell phone number for the guy that will be assigned to us. They will come in and do checks and make sure everything is going the way they expect it to,” said Martin.
State records indicate that as of early March, 43 Texas law enforcement agencies already had agreed to a 287(g) agreement.