House Democrats are calling on the chamber’s appropriations chair to defund the flawed and racist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policy that allows local law enforcement to act like mass deportation agents. While 287(g) existed prior to the previous administration, it ballooned under it, turning sheriffs into the anti-immigrant agenda’s “most enthusiastic foot soldiers,” Mother Jones reported last year.
“The program allows @ICEgov to enter into agreements w/ state & local law enforcement agencies that has led to the degradation in trust between communities of color & police,” tweeted Rep. Ritchie Torres. The New York legislator led the letter signed by roughly two dozen House Democrats to House Appropriations chair Lucille Roybal-Allard of California. “This program must end & should not be funded.”
Legislators wrote in the letter that even as the program expanded since 2017 from 35 agreements to 150 agreements, a recent Government Accountability Office report said that “ICE officials stated that they do not track or measure the performance of the 287(g) program over time. As such, ICE is unaware of the effectiveness of the program due to the lack of measurement tracking.” ICE may not be tracking the program, but the Justice Department sure has been.
“An investigation by the Department of Justice concluded that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in Arizona engaged in a pattern and practice of constitutional violations, including racial profiling of Latinos, after entering a 287(g) agreement,” the American Immigration Council wrote in a 2020 report. “For example, the investigation found that deputies of Sheriff Joe Arpaio routinely conducted ‘sweeps’ in Latino neighborhoods, and that Latino drivers in certain parts of Maricopa County were up to nine times more likely to be stopped than non-Latino drivers.”
Sheriffs have more recently campaigned—and won—on ending this deeply flawed policy. Calling the it “legal racial profiling,” Charleston County Sheriff Kristin Graziano terminated the policy on her first day in office after winning her election last November.
“We are pleased that the 287(g) program did not receive any significant increases in funding from FY 2017 to FY 2020,” legislators continued. “However, with the lack of oversight, no clearly defined strategy for the 287(g) program, and a continued degradation in public trust of local law enforcement, it would be irresponsible for the federal government to continue funding this program. As such, we ask that all funding for the 287(g) program be zeroed out for FY 2022.” Roll Call reports that the program consistently receives roughly $25 million in funding annually.
The program has been under increasing scrutiny from advocates and legislators alike. House Democrats in February also called on Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to scrap the policy entirely. They explained in their letter to him that 287(g) and other anti-immigrant policies “turn local law enforcement agencies into a gateway to deportation, co-opt local resources into questionable, racially discriminatory purposes, strip communities of safety and public trust, and subject localities and the federal government to liability.”
”It is time to discard these broken programs of yesteryear,” legislators continued to Mayorkas. “In particular, we urge you to immediately fulfill the president’s commitment to end 287(g) agreements entered into by the Trump administration, and to go further by dismantling the 287(g) program altogether.”
“The program allows @ICEgov to enter into agreements w/ state & local law enforcement agencies that has led to the degradation in trust between communities of color & police,” tweeted Rep. Ritchie Torres. The New York legislator led the letter signed by roughly two dozen House Democrats to House Appropriations chair Lucille Roybal-Allard of California. “This program must end & should not be funded.”
Legislators wrote in the letter that even as the program expanded since 2017 from 35 agreements to 150 agreements, a recent Government Accountability Office report said that “ICE officials stated that they do not track or measure the performance of the 287(g) program over time. As such, ICE is unaware of the effectiveness of the program due to the lack of measurement tracking.” ICE may not be tracking the program, but the Justice Department sure has been.
“An investigation by the Department of Justice concluded that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in Arizona engaged in a pattern and practice of constitutional violations, including racial profiling of Latinos, after entering a 287(g) agreement,” the American Immigration Council wrote in a 2020 report. “For example, the investigation found that deputies of Sheriff Joe Arpaio routinely conducted ‘sweeps’ in Latino neighborhoods, and that Latino drivers in certain parts of Maricopa County were up to nine times more likely to be stopped than non-Latino drivers.”
Sheriffs have more recently campaigned—and won—on ending this deeply flawed policy. Calling the it “legal racial profiling,” Charleston County Sheriff Kristin Graziano terminated the policy on her first day in office after winning her election last November.
“We are pleased that the 287(g) program did not receive any significant increases in funding from FY 2017 to FY 2020,” legislators continued. “However, with the lack of oversight, no clearly defined strategy for the 287(g) program, and a continued degradation in public trust of local law enforcement, it would be irresponsible for the federal government to continue funding this program. As such, we ask that all funding for the 287(g) program be zeroed out for FY 2022.” Roll Call reports that the program consistently receives roughly $25 million in funding annually.
The program has been under increasing scrutiny from advocates and legislators alike. House Democrats in February also called on Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to scrap the policy entirely. They explained in their letter to him that 287(g) and other anti-immigrant policies “turn local law enforcement agencies into a gateway to deportation, co-opt local resources into questionable, racially discriminatory purposes, strip communities of safety and public trust, and subject localities and the federal government to liability.”
”It is time to discard these broken programs of yesteryear,” legislators continued to Mayorkas. “In particular, we urge you to immediately fulfill the president’s commitment to end 287(g) agreements entered into by the Trump administration, and to go further by dismantling the 287(g) program altogether.”