Weber County OKs accord with feds to help in the fight against illegal immigration

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Weber County has approved a cooperative agreement with U.S. immigration officials to aid in identifying immigrants here illegally.
Sheriff Ryan Arbon said the aim is assuring public safety and helping identify immigrants with deportation orders or prior legal issues.
Weber County is Utah's largest law enforcement agency to formalize a cooperative agreement under the 287(g) program.

OGDEN — Weber County officials are the latest to approve a formal agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to bolster cooperation in identifying immigrants here illegally and enforcing U.S. immigration law.

"There are some criminals here that need to be removed, and that's what we're going to do," said Weber County Sheriff Ryan Arbon. Assuring public safety, he said, is the driving force behind the new effort.

Weber County commissioners approved a memorandum of understanding last week with immigration officials to take part in the 287(g) program, as it's known, though the sheriff's officials who will be directly involved still need to get training. By population of area served, the Weber County Sheriff's Office becomes the largest law enforcement agency in Utah to reach accord with federal authorities under the 287(g) initiative, joining Washington and Sanpete counties, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Utah Department of Corrections formalized an agreement with immigration officials in May, while an agreement is in the works with the Toole County Sheriff's Office.

As part of President Donald Trump's increased focus on tracking down and deporting immigrants here illegally, particularly those with criminal records, his administration has put a focus on increasing cooperation between federal immigration officials and local law enforcement. Under the Weber County 287(g) agreement, contemplated in the Immigration and Nationality Act, a handful of sheriff's office officials, possibly three to five of them, will receive training on how to verify the migratory status of immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally.

"If they are (here illegally), we arrest them, and then ICE can come pick them up if they want," Arbon said. He envisions the effort targeting immigrants who have had prior run-ins with the law and are already facing deportation. In years past, the sheriff's office has also cooperated with immigration officials, though the new accord formalizes the relationship and creates extra leeway to hold immigrants subject to deportation.

Sheriff's officials won't be checking the migratory status of "random people," Arbon said. "To be clear, we're not ... out there looking for people that are aliens," he said.

Instead, sheriff's officials would likely conduct background checks only on those suspects they come across in the normal course of their duties who don't have a driver's license or other forms of local identification. If someone's stopped for a traffic violation or for alleged domestic violence, by way of example, participation in the 287(g) program creates a means of determining whether the person is subject to deportation or otherwise on the radar of immigration authorities.

"We have stopped hundreds if not thousands of people in the last several years that do not have any local or state identification, but we haven't done anything with those on the federal level," though they might face local charges, he said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement program has three models under the 287(g) program, and Weber County has created an accord with the agency under the "task force" format. One of the other formats allows for information-sharing between immigration officials and local corrections officers.

"The Task Force Model allows your officers to enforce limited immigration authority while performing routine police duties, such as identifying an alien at a (drunk-driving) checkpoint and sharing information directly with ICE. An ICE supervisor determines the next steps. These officers may also exercise limited immigration authority as active participants on ICE-led task forces," reads the 287(g) website.

Arbon stressed the cooperative arrangement as a means of keeping Weber County safe. "We don't want criminals in our county," he said.

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