Police learn ICE techniques
By Ben Winslow
Deseret News
Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2008 12:56 a.m. MDT
6 comments
A pair of Utah police departments have undergone training by federal immigration agents in an effort to streamline the process of determining who is in the country illegally when they're booked into jail.
The Washington and Weber county sheriff's departments recently sent corrections officers to a five-week training course in Virginia. As a result, the jails now have access to an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement database that will allow them to quickly determine an inmate's immigration status.

Until now, Washington County Sheriff Kirk Smith said, they had to wait on ICE agents.

"We had to decide, are we going to continue to blame the federal government or do something proactively here?" he said Monday, adding "our constituents are asking us for this."

After a funding request for more federal agents in southern Utah was shot down, Smith said he asked Sen. Orrin Hatch, R—Utah, and Rep. Jim Matheson, D—Utah, to help get his deputies into the ICE training.

The training has generated controversy because of the close partnership it creates between ICE and local police agencies. Latino activists also worry about racial profiling.

"I oppose any training that's done when law enforcement has to go to stop a person who's simply driving a car when that person hasn't committed a crime," said Tony Yapias, with Proyecto Latino de Utah. "I don't have a problem if someone ends up in jail for drug dealing or some other crime. Those individuals are on their own because I don't support their crime."
Smith expressed some reluctance to implement the training on the streets.
"I think it's good for the jail," Smith said of the program. "I'm not comfortable with it out on patrol at this point. There's enough other things going on in our community. It's not a good use of manpower."

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,700262726,00.html