Plymouth, Bristol county sheriffs join forces with ICE on immigration law enforcement
Plymouth, Bristol county sheriffs join forces with ICE on immigration law enforcement
Saturday
Posted Jan 14, 2017 at 6:34 AM Updated Jan 14, 2017 at 7:36 AM
By Wesley Sykes, New Bedford Standard-Times
DARTMOUTH - Bristol County Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson and Plymouth County Sheriff Joe McDonald will enter a partnership with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to perform immigration law enforcement functions on the local level.
The partnership will allow Bristol and Plymouth County personnel to identify, process and detain immigration offenders.
Hodgson, McDonald and ICE leaders will hold an official signing in a Wednesday ceremony at 10 a.m. at the Bristol County Sheriff's Office.
Prior to the agreement, ICE officers from the Massachusetts Department of Corrections in Boston were the only officials authorized to perform immigration reviews. The announcement will make Bristol and Plymouth counties the second and third departments in the New England region be trained by ICE.
"The Bristol County Sheriff's Office will continue to fully cooperate with ICE and other federal law enforcement agencies to protect the citizens of this great country," Hodgson said in a press statment.
"More communication and cooperation between law enforcement organizations can only benefit our citizens and help keep them safe."
Jonathan Darling, Hodgson spokesman, said the office was accepted by ICE in the fall and the first step will be updating their computer technology and getting integrated with ICE's databases. Then in the spring, personnel from the sheriff's office will begin an intensive four-week training program on how to access immigration databases, complete immigration forms and carry out the function of federal immigration agents at its training academy in Charleston, South Carolina.
Darling said to expect the program to hit the streets around September or October of 2017.
"We want to make sure our people get as much training and information as possible. We're taking this very seriously," he said. "We want to make sure we're going to know what we're doing and have the right information if we have to place a detainer on (a potential undocumented immigrant)."
Hodgson, in his fourth term as Bristol County sheriff, stressed his department's "obligation, first and foremost, to collaborate with all law enforcement at every level to maximize our resources to protect the safety of our citizens and legal residents".
Helena DaSilva Hughes, executive director of Immigrant Assistance Center, said she sees the partnership undercutting the efforts of the New Bedford police department building relationships with documented and undocumented immigrants.
She cited regular open office hour meetings between her organization, the New Bedford police, Corinn Williams of the Community Economic Development Center and immigrant members of the community.
These meetings have created a level of trust between the police department and undocumented immigrant community, many of whom are victims of crimes but don't report it out of fear.
"The sheriff's office getting personnel trained on immigration law enforcement undercuts the (city) police department's efforts to build trust within the undocumented immigrant community," Hughes said.
"It will force the undocumented population further in hiding."
Williams echoed Hughes' thoughts, saying the program, called a 287(g) program, "hasn't worked".
"It has upticks of racial profiling, doesn't really net violent criminals and is very costly," Williams said.
Darling said there are still a lot of moving pieces as it pertains to what the final cost of the program will be.
The Bristol County Sheriff's Office is currently in negotiations with ICE about getting funding from agency and possibly grants from the federal government.
"The burden of the majority of costs will not fall on the residents of Bristol County," Darling said.
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