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OGDEN -- Despite the talk of lawsuits, immigration and law enforcement, some Utah jails are currently checking the status of inmates booked into their facilities.
At the Weber County Jail, several men sat in a room while a deputy scanned their fingerprints into a database. It will be used to help determine their immigration status.
"It's a combination of a background check, immigration records and an interview with the individual will help determine whether it appears this individual is in the United States legally or not," explained Weber County sheriff's Lt. Mark Lowther.
Last year, the Weber County Sheriff's Office sent several deputies from its jail to be trained by federal immigration officials on how to determine immigration status. The training, paid for by the U.S. government, allows them to use federal immigration databases to help determine who is in the country legally or not. "It's just part of the regular booking process," Lowther said.
The Purgatory Jail in Washington County has sent its deputies for the same training.
While the idea of cross-deputization makes sense at the jail, many law enforcement agencies are reluctant to take it to the streets. Many agencies in Utah have already said they do not plan to enforce Senate Bill 81, a controversial bill passed by the Utah State Legislature that allows police officers to be cross-deputized as immigration officials.
Salt Lake City's police chief has said that he will not enforce the law because he worries about the voluntary provision of SB81 leading to racial profiling and stopping crime victims from reporting a crime because they are afraid about their immigration status. A lawsuit is expected to be filed this week over the issue and other provisions of SB81.
The Weber County Sheriff's Office says it is not targeting anyone, merely checking the residency status of anyone booked into their facility for another crime.
"We don't go out on the street and round up groups to check their status," Lowther told KSL Newsradio on Monday. "All we're doing is checking the status of people that are brought in for whatever crime they may be alleged to have been committing."
Since they began checking immigration status last year, the Weber County Sheriff's Office estimates approximately 100 inmates have been identified as being in the country illegally. That information is then turned over to the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to decide what to do about the inmates' status within the country.
E-mail: bwinslow@ksl.com
