El Paso County deputies halt special immigration enforcement work

By Stephen Hobbs • Updated: May 2, 2015 at 6:02 am

El Paso County Sheriff's Office deputies will no longer carry out certain immigration law duties at the county jail on behalf of the federal government.

Under a program that ended this week, certain deputies were allowed to perform functions and access information at the El Paso County jail normally reserved for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. Beginning in September 2007, they had access to federal immigration databases, could interrogate inmates and place holds on people suspected of entering the country illegally, El Paso County Sheriff's Office Cmdr. Tom DeLuca said.

The authority for agencies to act on behalf of ICE officials was allowed under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.

"What we had found was that it was taking a lot of our staff time to actually investigate this," DeLuca said. The Sheriff's Office had 11 deputies, two sergeants and one lieutenant trained to enforce the program, he said, before it ended Thursday.

"We have decided as an office that it's best served by the federal government to determine that status," DeLuca said.

The nationwide program has been criticized for draining local resources and the lack of federal oversight, according to a Sheriff's Office release. As of September, the Sheriff's Office was the only agency in Colorado participating in the program. Across the country, 34 agencies in 17 states remained in the program as of September, the release said.

The partnership with ICE will not stop with the change, he said, as officials will be notified of inmates suspected of violating immigration laws and will have access to the federal immigration database at the jail.
-
Contact Stephen Hobbs: 636-0275
Twitter @bystephenhobbs

http://gazette.com/el-paso-county-de...Giiqhq4Su3D.99