- A recent incident caught on video underscores the problems with "cross-deputization" of agents from varied agencies in immigration enforcement, an attorney says.
- The video shows an apparent immigrant detainee, his hands cuffed, fleeing into a Salt Lake street outside a Home Depot.
- The action was handled by border patrol agents, attorney Adam Crayk said, not Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
SALT LAKE CITY — An immigrant enforcement action caught on video this week outside a Salt Lake Home Depot store highlights what one immigration attorney views as the problematic "cross-deputization" of officials from varying federal agencies to assist in detaining immigrants.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, is formally tasked with enforcing U.S. immigration law and pursuing immigrants in the country illegally, a priority of President Donald Trump's administration. Now, though, South Salt Lake immigration attorney Adam Crayk says FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations and Customs and Border Protection officials have increasingly gotten the call to handle enforcement actions given Trump's focus on detaining and deporting immigrants in the country illegally.
That's a problem, he said, because other agencies don't have the specialized training that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials do in handling detention of immigrants.
The issue, Crayk maintains, is exemplified by an incident Wednesday outside the Home Depot, 328 W. 2100 South in Salt Lake City, captured on video and posted to social media. In the video, officials apparently from Customs and Border Protection are handling an immigration enforcement action at the location when a detainee, his hands cuffed behind his back, runs into busy 2100 South, evading the officials.
The varied federal agencies have traditionally had cooperative accords to work with one another, with FBI agents, for instance, seeking help from Immigration and Customs Enforcement when they encounter immigrants they suspect are in the country illegally, he said.
"But now we've got guys up here from the border engaging in what happened yesterday at Home Depot, that caused panic and hysteria. You saw a guy literally running across traffic. If you watch the video, there's a dude running across 21st South because border agents don't know how to do successful and/or targeted arrests like ICE has been trained to do," Crayk said.
The 36-second video was posted by SLCScoop, a social media entity. SLCScoop described the incident as an "ICE raid," though Crayk says his inquiries show that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was not involved.
The first part of the video shows a man running from the Home Depot parking lot, hands cuffed behind his back, as another man unsuccessfully tries to pursue him. The fleeing man runs into 2100 South, and in the second part of the clip, someone uses bolt cutters to cut the heavy chain connecting the cuffs around each of his wrists. In the background, one man laughs and another says, in Spanish, "Be careful."
In a statement Tuesday, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs for the Department of Homeland Security, said, without elaboration, that the Home Depot operation was conducted by both agencies. Crayk said he reached out to his federal government contacts and received word that the incident was an enforcement action handled by Customs and Border Protection officials, without Immigration and Customs Enforcement involvement.
"That's not a really good, targeted arrest. ... They're not controlling the variables. You get people running across traffic. That guy could have caused all sorts of wrecks," Crayk said. "It was just not handled well."
Each agency has its area of expertise, with Customs and Border Protection officials tasked with managing and controlling border trade and security, among other things. "There should not be ... cross-deputization," Crayk said.
McLaughlin said the Oct. 8 operation was aimed at an immigrant who had entered the United States illegally 14 times. She acknowledged the escape of one of the detainees captured in the operation, saying law enforcement officials "did not pursue out of their own safety and the suspect remains at-large." Others detained in the operation are in custody and face deportation, she said.
Reps from SLCScoop did not respond to queries seeking comment.
A report last month by the CATO Institute, a Libertarian think tank, said some 14,500 federal agents have been reassigned from their respective agencies to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement with enforcement actions. Adding state and local law enforcement officers tasked to help with enforcement brings that total to more than 25,000 people.
Customs and Border Protection agents, Cato said, "are being reassigned away from the border to conduct workplace raids inside the United States."
