Tarrant County will consider extending one of Trump’s key immigration promises
Tarrant County leaders this week will take up one of the most heated issues to come before them — whether to renew a federal program that lets sheriff’s deputies work as ICE agents.
Supporters believe the program makes Tarrant County safer. Critics say it has a chilling effect on migrants who are scared they will be targeted and deported for something as small as a traffic ticket.
Tarrant County Commissioners are scheduled to vote on whether to extend the program, known as 287(g), during their 10 a.m. meeting Tuesday.
“The folks against this aren’t thinking big picture about how this can impact an urban area,” said Rick Barnes, who heads the Tarrant County Republican Party. “You end up with people who should be incarcerated who are not if you don’t have the program in place.
“We aren’t putting people in jail for simple violation of policies. These are major violations from people we don’t want on the streets.”
Sindy Mata, a community organizer with ICE Out of Tarrant, said the program is used to breed fear in some communities.
“Community members feel they are over-policing and using terrorizing tactics,” the Fort Worth woman said. “It is used to intimidate and silence our community.
“But they won’t silence us.”
Tarrant County is home to more than 2 million people. The undocumented population is estimated at 109,000, according to the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.
Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn has said that sheriff’s deputies are not racially profiling or conducting raids for ICE. His office said immigration checks are run on those arrested for Class B misdemeanor arrests or higher.
Contract extension?
The program is known as 287(g) because it refers to a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that lets law enforcement agencies work with federal immigration officers and “perform immigration law enforcement functions.”
President Donald Trump pushed for these agreements between law enforcement agencies and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement through an executive order. The order was perceived by Trump supporters as a delivery of his campaign promise to focus on illegal immigration.
In 2017, newly elected Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn agreed to have 12 deputies trained to act as ICE agents under the federal program. The program has been in place ever since.
Waybourn has said deputies perform ICE duties while also doing their routine tasks. He said the deputies’ salaries are paid by the county and the federal government pays for travel, boarding, meals and other expenses associated with ICE training. Sheriff department calculations show the program cost $17,800 from June 1, 2019, to May 31, 2020.
The clock expires on 287(g) agreements at the end of June.
Tarrant commissioners last year voted along party lines — with Republicans Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley and commissioners Gary Fickes and J.D. Johnson in support and. Democratic commissioners Roy Brooks and Devan Allen in opposition — to extend the contract for one year.
National spotlight
Waybourn drew national attention in October while attending a White House press briefing with the director of the ICE program.
While speaking about the jail population that includes undocumented immigrants, drunken drivers and repeat offenders, Waybourn said that if released, “these drunks will run over your children and they will run over my children.”
He referenced a court ruling that made it harder for immigration officials to detain migrants longer.
“It will put our communities in jeopardy,” Waybourn said during the briefing. “Of those people that we have in custody, we know for a fact that 72% of them are repeat offenders, so if we have to turn them loose, or they get released, they’re coming back to your neighborhood and my neighborhood. These drunks will run over your children, and they will run over my children.
“And if that happens, I know that you would want, and certainly I would want for you, the full force of the law. And immigration is part of that full force.”
His comments drew reaction from critics, some who said it was “appalling” that he “would make such ignorant and twisted racist statements.”
Mata said the sheriff “has not been very responsible with his actions.”
“The danger with his words is that they enable the hateful rhetoric that is typically used against our communities,” Mata said.
Immigration debate
Supporters argue that this program is needed.
“Law enforcement officers have a sworn duty to protect and serve the community, and to uphold and enforce the laws of the country and the state,” said Fran Rhodes, president of the True Texas Project, the group formerly known as the NE Tarrant Tea Party. “So why would anyone not support this program? It is part of the laws of the state and the country.”
She said the overall cost of this program is a small piece of the county’s overall budget.
“And I believe (it is) a small price to pay to keep criminals off the streets of our community, who should not have been there in the first place,” Rhodes said.
Critics have been calling in to commissioners in recent weeks, asking officials to not renew the contract.
The ICE out of Tarrant Coalition has been holding a billboard and #FindTrumpsPuppet tour, claiming the 287(g) program isn’t transparent. It says it targets undocumented people, undermines public safety and wastes county resources.
“The #FindTrumpsPuppet tour aims to unmask the role that Sheriff Bill Waybourn plays in continuing to advance and expand his racist agenda under the 287(g) program,” said Jessica Ramirez, a community organizer for ICE out of Tarrant.
The program has existed for several decades and it has been used in both Republican and Democratic administrations.
It has been criticized through the years by people in both parties.
But it became a piece of the nation’s immigration debate with Trump’s 2016 election and has come under fire in recent years by immigration allies who describe it as discriminatory because it opens the door to racial profiling.
The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Department is one of 77 law enforcement agencies in 21 states participating in the program and one of 24 sheriff’s departments in Texas, according to a list compiled by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
This story was originally published June 15, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
