Jackson County sheriff, ICE sign partnership to enforce warrants
Mom faces deportation after taking 'Bridge to Canada' exit in Detroit
For one woman, that simple wrong turn could all end with her getting deported. A mom, who’s here illegally, was detained for six days, her two young children for five, after they accidentally got onto the Ambassador Bridge. Ruby Robinson is the immigration attorney representing "Sarahi" as she faces deportation to Guatemala.
(FOX 2) - The Jackson County Sheriff's Office has entered a formal agreement to assist the federal immigration enforcement agency with executing warrants authorized by U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement.
The partnership is the first of its kind in Michigan and is part of President Donald Trump's goal of ramping up deportations and removing people staying unlawfully in the country.
Big picture view:
According to ICE, Jackson County officially partnered with the department on March 19 this year.
Its officers will work within one of the models under the 287(g) program, which enables ICE to delegate specific jobs to local and state police departments.
Deputies with the Jackson County Sheriff's Office will be trained to serve and execute administrative warrants on immigrants illegally residing in the U.S. who are kept at the agency's jail.
As of April 11, ICE has signed agreements with 444 different agencies.
The backstory:
The 287(g) program is part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which authorizes ICE officers to work with various law enforcement groups to carry out functions normally under the Department of Homeland Security's oversight.
There are three models under the program:
- Jail Enforcement Model - identify and process migrants staying in the U.S. illegally who have been arrested and face criminal charges
- Task Force Model - authorizes local police departments to enforce "limited immigration authority with ICE oversight"
- Warrant Service Officer - allows local officers to be trained by ICE to carry out certain warrants on migrants in the department's jail
After he was inaugurated this past January, Trump signed an executive order requiring ICE to authorize local and state law enforcement that the DHS secretary "determines are qualified and appropriate."
The other side:
Posting on its Facebook page earlier in April, the Michigan Immigrants Rights Center warned the 287(g) program had led to racial profiling, is costly for local municipalities, and "harms the relationship between police and local communities."
Mother takes Ambassador Bridge by mistake, now faces deportation from the U.S.
You might have fallen victim to it, accidentally merging into the toll area that goes right onto the Ambassador Bridge, to Canada. For one woman, that simple wrong turn could all end with her getting deported.
Dig deeper:
ICE's partnership with Jackson County isn't the only developments in Michigan as it relates to immigration.
College students at several Michigan universities enrolled on visas had their authorization to stay in the country revoked last week. Students were not given an advance notice or a reason before losing their visa.
In response, the ACLU of Michigan sued the federal government on Thursday on behalf of four international students enrolled at the schools.
"The right to due process is one of our most fundamental constitutional rights, requiring that a person receive sufficient notice to respond and challenge a government action," executive director Loren Khogali said. "In this case, the Trump administration failed to provide any advance notification to students that they were stripping them of their student immigrant status and offered no viable opportunity to respond or challenge it.
Outside of Michigan, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday night the Trump administration must help return a man who was wrongly deported to El Salvador.
The administration blamed an "administrative error" for the wrongful deportation.
The Source: Immigration Customs and Enforcement and the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center.