Beaufort County Sheriff to field public questions on ICE, task force program
Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner will answer residents’ questions about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its 287(g) program — which allows ICE to partner up with local and state law enforcement agencies to conduct more immigration enforcement — in an upcoming public meeting.
The Q&A style meeting will take place at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, July 8, at the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office Headquarters, located at 1501 Bay Street in Beaufort.
Members of the Beaufort County Council, including Chair Alice Howard (District 4), York Glover (District 3), Gerald Dawson (District 1), and David Bartholomew (District 2) will co-host the meeting.
Howard recently said that the meeting came together after the council heard a number of concerns and questions from community members regarding ICE and its relationship with local law enforcement.
What is the 287(g) program?
In February, Tanner applied to form a local “task force” with ICE, part of the 287(g) program brought back during President Donald Trump’s second term. A list of pending program agencies does not yet list the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office as of July 3.
The application process does take some time, the Sheriff previously told The Island Packet, but he hopes to hear back about a decision by the end of the year.
The task force model is one of three frameworks within the 287(g) program.
Under the task force model, ICE provides training and resources to participating police departments, allowing local officers to help enforce federal immigration law. Officers in the program have the authority to question people about their immigration status and detain them for possible deportation.
By contrast, the other two models focus on investigating people who have already been arrested and booked in local jails.
The jail enforcement model allows for people without proper status who have been arrested to be identified and processed for immigration purposes, and the warrant service officer program allows local officers to serve and execute ICE warrants on people already in jail, according to the Miami Herald.
These partnerships between ICE and local police departments have been criticized over the years, with some arguing the program encourages racial profiling and reduces trust in police. Proponents see the program as a “force multiplier,” encouraging collaboration between federal, state and local agencies to enforce immigration law.
Nationwide program expansion
The 287(g) program is expanding rapidly under the Trump administration.
As of July 3, local and state agencies across the U.S. had signed 754 agreements to participate in the program, including all three models. Only 135 agreements were in place in January, according to ICE.
Trump revived the program’s task force model in the first weeks of his second term after it was abandoned in 2012 during former President Barack Obama’s administration. The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office actually was part of a 287(g) task force for about four years until the national scale back.
In South Carolina, 21 agencies have opted in, including the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, 17 county sheriff’s departments and three police departments. Two other county sheriff’s departments are on the list of pending agencies.
A local police or sheriff’s department may have multiple agreements with ICE, as is the case in South Carolina’s Union, Berkeley, Chester and Pickens counties.
Tanner applied for the program again in early 2017 as Trump began his first term, leading to small protests and public outcry among certain Beaufort County residents. But the sheriff’s office “never received confirmation” regarding a contract, Tanner previously told The Island Packet.
