Utah Sheriffs Association leaders defend increasing cooperation with immigration officials

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The head of the Utah Sheriffs Association is defending the growing number of local accords with federal officials in cracking down on illegal immigration.
The accords, dubbed 287(g) agreements, focus on assuring local public safety, not filling local jails with immigrants in the country illegally.
Critics fear the agreements can have the effect of dehumanizing immigrants and undermining public safety.

KANAB — As more Utah law enforcement agencies enter into cooperative agreements with federal immigration authorities, the head of the Utah Sheriffs Association says the aim isn't to fill the state's jails with immigrants who are in the country illegally.

"We don't want to get in the business of mass incarceration of people," said Kane County Sheriff Tracy Glover, president of the Utah Sheriffs Association, noting limited bed space in state jails, among other things. If that's the aim of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, he said, "they'll have to work that out within their own area of responsibility."

Rather, as the federal immigration crackdown spearheaded by the administration of President Donald Trump progresses, local law enforcement agencies are interested in assisting federal officials in their efforts to process and deport criminal immigrants in the country illegally. Several Utah sheriff's offices, including those in Kane and Utah counties, recently entered into cooperative accords with Immigration and Customs Enforcement — dubbed 287(g) agreements — to aid the agency in enforcing U.S. immigration law.

Local law enforcement officials, Glover said Monday, want "to more efficiently process" immigrants in the country illegally who commit crimes in their locales, thereby aiding federal officials in the deportation process.

Kane County Sheriff Tracy Glover, head of the Utah Sheriffs Association, is a backer of increased cooperation between local law enforcement agencies and U.S. immigration officials in defending federal immigration law. (Photo: Kane County Sheriffs Office)

"I haven't met a sheriff yet that's interested in engaging in any kind of sweeps or raids or anything like that," Glover said. "We don't want to do that, but when there's a criminal, our interest is to keep our community safe. So if there's an option for us to collaborate, partner with ICE ... on getting criminals off the street, we're interested in doing that."

Glover said a contingent of Utah sheriffs traveled to Washington, D.C., in May to meet with top officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and he senses a more cooperative spirit with them thanks to a change in leadership at the agency's Salt Lake City field office. The changed tone, the Utah Sheriffs Association stated in a press release last week, has paved the way for the growing number of 287(g) agreements in Utah, now in effect in seven counties and at the Utah Department of Corrections.

Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith, immediate past president of the Utah Sheriffs Association, was part of the May contingent and echoed Glover's assessment.

Michael Bernacke, the focus of ire of Gov. Spencer Cox and other top Utah sheriffs' officials in a letter they wrote last January, had headed the Salt Lake City office but was replaced last month by Jason Knight. Among other things, Bernacke had issued a statement, derided by many local officials and later retracted, labeling Utah a "sanctuary" state — that is, a state that aids immigrants in the country illegally.

Knight has "been very open and transparent in working with us," Smith said. The improved dialogue "needed to happen."

The laudatory remarks of Glover and Smith notwithstanding, Utah County's plans to enter into a 287(g) agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement sparked strong opposition before county commissioners approved the proposal on July 16. The opponents expressed concern that the plans would be dehumanizing, spark fear in the immigrant community, and undermine public safety.

As described by Glover, though, much of the new cooperation would come in the form of information sharing by federal officials — more formalized coordination in the provision of federal immigration data about suspects arrested locally. Sheriff's offices have long coordinated with immigration officials, notwithstanding the flurry of new 287(g) agreements, which can provide local officials with the authority to prepare federal warrants for immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally.

"I want to make that clear — sheriffs don't go out and pick people up on immigration violations," he said. Rather, local law enforcement operating under one of the common types of 287(g) accords would only work with immigration officials to ascertain the migratory status of people after they've been arrested, in the regular course of the officers' duties.

In stressing that local law enforcement agencies aren't aiming to make mass arrests, Glover noted limited bed space in the state's jails. That said, he also noted a mechanism opened up under Trump that would allow local jails to house more immigrants detained by federal authorities through agreements they have with the U.S. Marshals Service.

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