Galveston County – Several law enforcement agencies in Galveston County are partnering with Immigration and Customs Enforcement through a program called 287(g). The program allows local law enforcement officers to perform certain immigration enforcement actions under ICE’s supervision.
The Galveston County Sheriff’s Office, Constable Precincts 1,2 and 4, and League City police have officers and deputies participating in the 287(g) Task Force Model program.
The name of the program comes from a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act authorizing these partnerships. Under 287(g), state and local law enforcement are deputized to help ICE investigate whether someone is in the country illegally, even if the person is not charged with a crime in the United States.
Typically, only federal agents conduct immigration status investigations.
“We can do that investigation ourselves under the federal rules and regulations,” said Galveston County Precinct 4 Constable Justin West. “We can proceed with an investigation into the immigration status using the 287(g) authority."
According to Galveston Sheriff Jimmy Fullen, 28 deputies have gone through the 40-hour online training course to be part of the program, and another 30 deputies are in the process of training. Among the three participating Constables Offices, another 14 deputy constables combined have been through the training.
West said ICE agents also provided additional training in Galveston County.
“They’re in the field, they’re helping us understand questions we can and can’t ask,” said West.
According to data from the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office, law enforcement has already transferred 648 people to ICE custody this year, in addition to 653 held on ICE detainers in the jail.
“Our deputies can do the same thing federal agents were doing, this just expedites the situation so we’re not out on a scene or out on a traffic stop waiting on approval from the ICE Agents,” said Fullen.
There are three types of 287(g) partnerships: Jail Enforcement model, Task Force model and Warrant Service Officer program. The Galveston County jail was already participating in 287(g), which allows officers to identify inmates who are possibly in the country illegally.
The Warrant Officer program allows local law enforcement to serve administrative warrants on someone believed to be in the United States illegally.
“They’re going after people who really need to be behind bars, they’re not going after the guy working in the back of the kitchen somewhere,” said Galveston County Judge Mark Henry.
Galveston County has an established history of working on immigration enforcement. 2 Investigates rode with Galveston County deputies several times as they worked along the border under Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star.
“This is a further extension of Operation Lone Star and the things that we were doing down on the southern border assisting (Border Patrol),” said Galveston County Precinct 1 Constable Blake Patton.
“That was the front-end, and we thought it just as important to get involved on the back end to clean up the mess that we had in this county,” said Precinct 2 Constable Paul Edinburgh.
Fullen, West, Edinburgh and Patton all said participation in the program will not replace deputies’ regular duties.
“We’re not going into workplaces, we are not going to places of worship, schools, trying to yank people out that we think are illegal. However, if we do come across them and we determine that they are in fact here illegally, we are going to process them and we are going ship them back,” said Fullen.
League City police also has five officers trained under 287(g). The City of Galveston, La Marque and the Galveston County Precinct 3 Constable’s Office are not participating in the program.
“Being in the country is a civil issue, and not criminal. If there is a criminal complaint, we will enforce the law,” Galveston County Pct. 3 Constable Derrick Rose write in a statement to 2 Investigates.
Texas City police have not yet responded to our request for whether its officers are participating in the 287(g) program. In Sept. the Dept. of Homeland Security announced ICE would “fully reimburse participating agencies for the annual salary and benefits of each eligible trained 287(g) officer.”
DHS officials said ICE currently has 958 agreements with local and state law enforcement agencies under the 287(g) program.