Valley sheriffs ponder federal immigration enforcement program

EDINBURG — Many Rio Grande Valley law enforcement officers cringe when someone talks about working with the federal government to identify and arrest illegal immigrants.

But when U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano brought up the idea during an Aug. 11 speech in El Paso, some Valley peace officers listened.

The law in question, Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996. Sixty-three local law enforcement agencies throughout the country partner with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to designate officers who can enforce federal immigration laws.

Agencies can allocate officers to work on a task force that focuses on immigration law enforcement or assign jail officers who focus on identifying illegal immigrants already in jail.

“I am considering being a part of it — only on the detention side,” Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said. “I would never do the enforcement. I won’t even help.”

“Prior 287(g) agreements, quite frankly, did not have any accountability built in, nor do they have any priorities built in,” Napolitano said. “And so for the agencies that had them, there really was a carte blanche to do whatever they wished.”

For the sheriffs in the Valley’s two most populous counties, however, rounding up illegal immigrants on the street has never been a priority.

Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio said he would not participate in 287(g) because his agency lacks the manpower and jail space to round up illegals.

“You run into those people all the time,” Lucio said of them. “There’s not enough jail space to support it.”

ICE and U.S. Border Patrol agents already work with Hidalgo County Jail officers to conduct background checks on inmates, just as they would under 287(g), but the cooperation takes place on an informal basis, said Treviño, who sits on a Homeland Security advisory panel focusing on border security.

When an illegal immigrant inmate is identified, a detainer — a writ authorizing the keeper of a prison to continue to hold a person in custody — is placed on the individual that tells officers to turn the inmate over to federal authorities at the end of his jail term.

For now, Sheriff Treviño said his agency will continue to target the “criminal illegal immigrant” — those whose offenses entail more than violating federal immigration law.

“That is not my job,” Treviño said of federal immigration enforcement. “But when you land in my jail, then you’re mine.”

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Jared Taylor covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4439.