The enforcement of immigration laws is constantly plagued with lack of prioritization and funding. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal law enforcement agency tasked with combatting transnational crime and enforcing immigration laws, has been transformed under the Biden Administration to a travel facilitation agency for illegal aliens and a grant making organization for sanctuary cities. An important public safety program for local law enforcement that is being underutilized comes from the Delegation of Immigration Authority under Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), a program that enables cooperation between federal immigration authorities and state or local law enforcement agencies in the removal of dangerous aliens from the interior of our country. Section 287(g) was added to the INA in 1996, allowing ICE to enter into agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies. These agreements, known as Memorandums of Agreement (MOAs), permit designated law enforcement officers to perform specific immigration law enforcement functions under ICE supervision. Aliens who enter the United States illegally are often not on ICE’s radar. By training local law enforcement to identify, process, and remove aliens who have been arrested for violating state or local laws, the program prevents removable criminal aliens from being released back into the community.
Participating officers undergo extensive training provided by ICE covering immigration law, civil rights, and ICE policies. They perform functions such as interviewing individuals about their immigration status, checking Department of Homeland Security (DHS) databases, issuing immigration detainers, and preparing charging documents for removal proceedings.
There are two different program models: the jail enforcement model and the warrant service officer model.
Jail Enforcement Model: Officers identify and process removable aliens who have been arrested and booked into the jail for violating state or local laws. This model focuses on individuals already in custody, streamlining the process of identifying removable aliens within the criminal justice system. It requires more extensive training and grants broader authority to participating officers. This is the most effective model for swift removal of aliens and was championed by the Trump administration.
Warrant Service Officer (WSO) Model: Introduced in 2019, this model is more limited in scope. Participating officers serve administrative warrants and transport aliens to ICE custody. This model requires less training compared to the jail enforcement model. WSO officers can’t interrogate individuals about their immigration status or make independent immigration enforcement decisions.
The key difference is that the Jail Enforcement model allows for more comprehensive and direct immigration enforcement activities within jails, cutting out ICE as the middleman, while the WSO model is more limited, focusing primarily on serving ICE warrants and facilitating transfers to ICE custody.
The effectiveness of the 287(g) program has been a resounding success and is championed by state and local law enforcement across the country. Proponents argue it enhances public safety by identifying and removing criminal aliens instead of releasing them back into the population to commit more crimes and harm our citizens. As of May 2024, there are 75 WSO agreements across 11 states and 60 JEM agreements across 16 states.
According to ICE statistics, From October 2017 to September 2020, more than 51,000 aliens were identified and placed in removal proceedings through the program. Affiliated law enforcement agencies encountered approximately 920 aliens convicted for assault, 1,261 convicted for illegal dangerous drugs such as fentanyl, 104 convicted for sex offenses or assaults, 377 convicted for obstructing police, 190 convicted for weapon offenses, and 37 convicted for homicide.
In recent years, the 287(g) program has faced scrutiny and changes from the Biden administration as they have deprioritized removal of aliens from the county and embraced mass-amnesty for those already here.
The 287(g) program has led to the identification and removal of numerous aliens with criminal records and should be embraced by any presidential administration focused on public safety and looking to capitalize on the lack of federal resources as immigration officials surge to stop the flow of migrants at our southern border. Using state and local partners to solve this shortfall is important to keeping the integrity of the immigration system of our country.
