Los Angeles County Ends 287(g) Program
In immigration news from Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County supervisors in a 3-2 vote cancelled a 2005 agreement under Immigration & Nationality Act § 287(g) with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Under the agreement, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies stationed at LA County jails were trained by ICE and had been able to take undocumented inmates into custody before their release to the general public.
Supervisors Hilda L. Solis (former Secretary of the Department of Labor) and Mark Ridley-Thomas co-authored the motion to end the County’s 287(g) agreement, which has been criticized for resulting in racial profiling, the separation of hundreds of thousands of families, and for damaging the trust between law enforcement and communities.
There had been problems with Section 287(g) programs in many jursidictions, with a number of law enforcement agencies such as Maricopa County, Arizona (and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MSCO) led by Sheriff Joe Arpaio) violating the rights of Latino U.S. citizens and lawful immigrants as well as undocumented immigrants in the enforcement of the immigration laws. That in no small part was the reason that the MSCO lost its 287(g) agreement. The programs gave much discretion to local law enforcement authorities in immigration enforcement with detrimental civil rights consequences.
The Obama administration had discontinued the 287(g) program, believing that the Secure Communities program, which (until discontinued in November 2014) required state and local police agencies to provide information about persons arrested to ICE, to be a more effective and efficient way to enforce removals of noncitizens. By limiting the discretion afforded state and local authorities, Secure Communities did not have as negative of civil rights consequences of the 287(g) programs did.
The civil rights consequences of state and local enforcement of the U.S. immigration laws are what led the U.S. government to challenge Section 2(B) of Arizona’s SB 1070; while the attempt to strike down Section 2(B) failed in the Supreme Court in Arizona v. United States, the U.S. Department of Justice no doubt understood the potential civil rights consequences of state and local enforcement of the U.S. immigration laws.
The Board of Supervisors has not completely abandoned immigration enforcement in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The board approved 4-to-1 to adopt the federal Priority Enforcement Program (PEP), which will allow for the jails to alert ICE if an inmate is eligible for deportation based on the inmate’s fingerprint matches. This program has replaced the discontinued Secure Communities program.
In response to the actions of the Board of Supervisors, Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell released the following statement:
“The Sheriff’s Department is responsible for helping people in their time of need and investigating crimes that have occurred, regardless of the individual’s immigration status. In achieving those objectives, our Department must work closely and cooperatively with federal authorities to identify and assist with the lawful investigation and prosecution of undocumented persons who pose a danger to our community; we must also bear in mind at all times the importance of preserving community relationships as well as the due process rights of those in our custody.
I welcome the opportunity to work with local, state and federal leaders as we develop policies and procedures that appropriately balance both promoting public safety and fortifying trust within the multiethnic communities that make up Los Angeles County. To that end, we are aiming to work with the Board offices, DHS and others to develop procedures and policies to identify the offenses that best reflect individuals in LASD custody who are a serious danger to our community and impact public safety. As to those individuals, we will work with federal authorities to notify them in advance and help facilitate a timely and seamless transfer to ICE custody prior to the individual’s release into the community.
The Sheriff’s Department must partner with some of the most diverse and immigrant-rich communities in the world. Serving the community, reducing crime and solving problems is immeasurably harder if law enforcement fails to maintain relationships with — and the trust of — our community. This is a basic principle of community policing.”
KJ