The Trump administration has won a victory in Texas by persuading state and local officials to perform the tasks of federal immigration officers. The Trump administration is hoping to strike similar bargains with other jurisdictions in a bid to get tough with so-called ‘sanctuary cities’.
18 Texas counties have signed a negotiated agreement, which will see training given to local agents in sheriff’s offices so that they can check on the immigration status of suspects held in custody and notify federal authorities with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) if they are found to be in violation of immigration laws. Thomas Homan, the acting director of ICE, says that taking undocumented immigrants already in jail into custody is safer for all concerned.
The number of these kinds of agreements in Texas made by Immigration and Customs Enforcement doubled over the last year, according to Reuters. But, most of the 254 counties in the state have still not reached a similar agreement. The sheriff of the state’s most populous county, Harris County, decided to leave the program early in 2017, citing it as being too great a drain on manpower and resources.
The new agreements come as the Trump administration tries to crack down on sanctuary cities where local law enforcement has declined to report undocumented immigrants to immigration authorities. ICE arrests have increased by as much as 40 percent since Donald Trump assumed the Presidency.