Twenty-five Laramie County Sheriff's Office deputies have been authorized to enforce immigration law.
"If deputies encounter undocumented aliens during regular criminal enforcement, they may detain them for removal proceedings," said Sheriff Brian Kozak.
Earlier this month, Kozak and 25 deputies reaffirmed their pledge to obey and enforce the Constitution, prohibiting any type of profiling or discrimination.
"We will have zero tolerance on profiling or discrimination with enforcement," said Kozak.
Deputies may inquire about immigration status only after a lawful stop, detention or arrest based on reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.
"We're not going to be doing immigration sweeps. Our focus is if we contact someone criminally, then we may as a secondary investigation conduct an immigration investigation," said Kozak.
This allows deputies to detain the individual for removal proceedings.
Part of the policy is involving a direct ICE supervisor.
"They will validate everything that we're doing and actually give us the green light to proceed with the detention or not," said Kozak.
This is all authorized and funded under Title 8, Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, an agreement that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wyoming has been very outspoken about.
The ACLU said these agreements have a history of eroding public safety, imposing heavy financial burdens on localities and leading to civil rights violations.
"It’s not wise to divert local law enforcement resources to subsidize federal immigration enforcement," the ACLU told Wyoming News Now. "Laramie County deputies belong in the neighborhoods of our communities providing crime prevention services to build trust and maintain order – not to be pulled out of neighborhoods to handle a federal responsibility."
The ACLU continued, "Deputizing so many local law enforcement officers to act as immigration agents diverts resources away from activities and investigations that actually keep our neighborhoods safe. By participating in 287(g) agreements, the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office is actually eroding trust in local law enforcement and deterring immigrant families from coming forward when they are the victims of crime or even asking for basic assistance."
Sheriff Kozak said training for the authorized deputies included classes on cultural diversity, profiling, naturalization process, document identification, visas and constitutional standards.
The sheriff said his priority is to deploy deputies to stop human and drug trafficking on Interstates 25 and 80.
The agreement also allows deputies to help trafficking and domestic violence victims obtain visas, ensuring the remain in the U.S. to testify.
"Our number one focus is to help people, and that's what we're going to do," said Kozak.
The Laramie County Detention Center has been approved by ICE to hold detainees, and the jail expected to receive 10 from an overcrowded facility in Colorado.
As of Oct. 1, the jail was housing 11 detainees on ICE holds. It receives a daily fee of $120 per detainee. Kozak says this revenue will be reinvested, and not used for ongoing expenses.
Republished with permission from Wyoming News Now, a TV news outlet covering the Cheyenne and Casper areas.