Sheriff willing to work with ICE
RUSSELLVILLE — Franklin County Sheriff Shannon Oliver praised his county’s Hispanic community and said his involvement with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Service is about getting rid of undocumented residents who have committed serious crimes.
Oliver has signed a memor andum of unders tanding to part icipate in two of three ICE programs being offered to local law enforcement.
The Franklin County Sheriff’s Department signed up for a program that would give deputies the power and authority to serve and execute warrants of arrest for immigration violations, and a program that gives them the power and authority to serve warrants of removal for undocumented immigrants who are incarcerated in the Franklin County Jail.
“Basically, the aspect I’m looking for is training, what we need to look for,” Oliver said.
Oliver said he wants the public to understand he is not intending to “round people up.”
“It’s more like for violent offenders that were brought to jail on other charges,” the sheriff said. “We’re getting them in jail for serious crimes.”
“We have a lot of good people in the Hispanic community,” he said. “Our goal is, if the bad ones are here, we don’t want them.”
The sheriffs of Colbert and Lauderdale counties are taking a wait and see attitude.
Colbert Sheriff Eric Balentine said his department is also willing to assist ICE, but he and other sheriffs across the state are waiting for issues involving qualified immunity to be settled before getting involved.
“Right now, with the new administration, they’re trying to help local law enforcement be an extension of ICE,” the sheriff said.
He said every sheriff in the state received an email with guidelines for assisting ICE in three programs.
Balentine said his department would be involved in the service of arrest warrants for undocumented immigrants and warrants of removal involving undocumented immigrants who are already in a county jail.
“We said ‘yes,’ we want to be a part of it,” the sheriff said, but added the concerns about qualified immunity. “Our question is, as sheriff, do we get the same immunity as ICE, acting as an agent of ICE. It’s something we’ve got questions about.”
Balentine said another issue has to do with the number of available beds that meet federal standards to house individuals believed to be in the country illegally.
He said many municipal and county jails do not meet the federal standards to house undocumented immigrants “There are only about 500 beds for these detainees,” Balentine said. “The reason is, the federal standards are so high, most city and county jails don’t meet the criteria.”
He said those issues are being negotiated.
Lauderdale Sheriff Joe Hamilton said he is still reviewing the paperwork he received from ICE.
“We will cooperate with ICE and if we’re needed to help them, we will,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton said his department has always cooperated with ICE and since January, they’ve sent 10 notifications to ICE regarding undocumented individuals.
The sheriff said eight of those 10 have been picked up by ICE and the other two remain in custody for local crimes. Hamilton said those two individuals would be tried locally.
