One of the major factors that distinguished Donald Trump from his opposition in this election season was his rhetoric on immigration. The president-elect has, throughout the campaign season and post-election, repeatedly claimed that immigrants bring crime and stated his plan to deport some 20 million undocumented immigrants from the country. Much has been said about the feasibility of such a plan, even as the number of undocumented immigrants in the country is far lower than the number he promises to deport. A new Wall Street Journal report outlines the role that sheriffs will play in carrying out Donald Trump’s immigration policy.
A confluence of administrative and political factors has made this office uniquely positioned to aid the president-elect in his mass deportation plan. Sources told the Journal that Trump is seeking a “historic” expansion of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy known known as 287(g), which delegates some powers from ICE agents to local authorities for the purposes of identifying and detaining undocumented immigrants. A sheriff in Frederick County, Maryland who participates in the program has a citizenship question on his jail’s intake form. Those who answer the question with any other country than the United States are brought to the “287(g) unit,” where another officer checks the person’s information against federal immigration databases. ICE can issue a 48-hour hold on the individual called a detainer, and it is then up to them to decide if they can be held beyond what the local charges would require.
According to the ACLU, the participation of local law enforcement in 287(g) programs has exploded in recent years, from 34 agencies in 2014 to over 140 by 2022. Sheriffs are considered particularly important to the process because they face less local oversight and accountability. Unlike police chiefs, who answer to elected officials at the municipal level, Sheriffs are themselves elected officials, and are generally accountable to no one outside of their obligation to get re-elected to keep the job. Jonathan Thompson, chairman of the National Sheriffs’ Association, told the Journal that they will be critical of Trump’s deportation plans. Texas and Florida have the largest number of 287(g) participants. New York has none.
Some cities have “sanctuary city” laws on the books that prohibit their officers from cooperating with ICE’s detainer requests. Sheriffs in California and Massachusetts have publicly declared that they do not and will not ask people their immigration status. Meanwhile, other states like North Carolina have passed laws dictating that all officers in the state cooperate with ICE.
The Journal reports that people familiar with Trump’s plans say that the incoming president will punish sanctuary cities by cutting off billions in federal funding to them.
