A New 287-G Program Spreads In North Carolina

By AMANDA MAGNUS & FRANK STASIO
 • 6 HOURS AGO

  • A new program creates agreements between North Carolina sheriffs and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
    U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT


Host Frank Stasio talks about cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration officers with Rockingham County Sheriff Samuel Page, Stefania Arteaga of the ACLU of North Carolina, Appalachian State University professor Felicia Arriaga and ICE southeast region public affairs director Bryan Cox.


Sheriffs in North Carolina are signing new agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Under the new Warrant Service Officer program, local law enforcement officials can serve federal administrative warrants and transfer detainees into ICE custody.

The program is part of 287(g), the controversial section of the 1996 Immigration and Nationality Act that allows local law enforcement to collaborate with ICE. Ten North Carolina counties have joined the Warrant Service Officer program since the beginning of 2020. Host Frank Stasio talks to Rockingham County Sheriff Samuel Page, the first sheriff in the state to join the program, about why he decided to sign on and what the collaboration between local law enforcement and ICE looks like in his jurisdiction.

Then, Stefania Arteaga, Felicia Arriaga and Bryan Cox further explore how the Warrant Service Officer program continues to shape the relationship between local residents and law enforcement around the state.

Arteaga is the acting regional immigrants' rights strategist for the ACLU of North Carolina, as well as the co-founder of Comunidad Colectiva and of the Carolina Migrant Network. Arriaga is an assistant professor in the department of sociology at Appalachian State University who studies immigration. And Cox is the public affairs director of the Southeastern Region of ICE.

The argument that the country that admits more legal immigrants is somehow anti-immigrant for enforcing laws that we do have — just as every other country on earth does — to me is simply cognitive dissonance. - Bryan Cox

https://www.wunc.org/post/new-287-g-program-spreads-north-carolina