A contentious program might provide the resources Trump needs to enforce his immigration policies, potentially setting the stage for a legal battle.
BEL AIR, Md. — As the Trump administration continues to settle its mass deportations plan, police departments throughout the state are preparing to expand a contentious program that lets them team up with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Understanding Trump’s Immigration Crackdown
The 287(g) program allows state and local law enforcement officers to assist in enforcing federal immigration law and would likely be one of the tools the new administration uses in order to build up its workforce as it looks to try and initiate what it dubs the largest deportation program in U.S. history. But it also likely may become a point of confrontation in the brewing legal showdown that is being set in place as Inauguration Day arrives.
The Controversial 287(g) Program Explained
- How the 287(g) Program Works
- Legal Authority Under the Immigration and Nationality Act
- Key Supporters of the Program
Tom Homan, who will serve as Trump’s “border czar,” visited Texas Tuesday to tout the forthcoming administration’s plans for mass deportations.
“We’re not waiting until January,” Homan said. “We’re going to put a plan in place and secure this nation.”
Homan, the former acting ICE director during Trump’s first term, has promised to “take the handcuffs off ICE.”
The 287(g) program was added to the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1996 under then-President Bill Clinton. It authorizes ICE to delegate to state and local law enforcement officers certain functions of an immigration officer. Once a suspect is arrested for a crime, a trained corrections officer can access an ICE database to see more information about their immigration status and may then detain the person for up to 48 hours if ICE chooses to pick them up for deportation.
Proponents of the program argue that it doesn’t allow local officers to round up undocumented immigrants on the streets, and enforcement is conducted within an agency’s jail or detention center only after an individual has been arrested for other charges. The ICE stated that as of May 2024, law enforcement agencies in 21 states participated in the program.
Law Enforcement
Harford County, Maryland, Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler is an avid supporter of the program. He believes that local law enforcement should partner with ICE to help enforce immigration laws. He also pushed back against criticism that it would lead to undocumented immigrants being unfairly targeted.
Impact on Law Enforcement
- Local Agencies Preparing for Mass Deportations
- Balancing Community Policing with Immigration Enforcement
This isn’t stopping people on the street — saying ‘show me your papers,'” Gahler said, “If they’re brought in — they’re arrested for something that they have committed, an act they’ve committed against the citizens of our community. And at that point, they’re held accountable for the action of being in the country illegally.”
Gahler is no stranger to being at the center of the country’s immigration debate. He has made several trips to the southern border — and worked on a high-profile murder case in his county allegedly involving an undocumented immigrant.
Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old mother of five, was reported missing on Aug. 5, 2023, and her body was found the following day off a popular running trail. Victor Martinez Hernandez, an El Salvador native, was arrested after a 10-month nationwide manhunt. He was extradited to Maryland, where he’s been charged with first-degree murder and rape.
The victim’s mother, Patty Morin, remembers when she first learned the suspect was undocumented.
“I was actually very angry,” she said in an interview with NBC News. “I thought we had laws in place for this type of thing. … But as information became more and more available, I realized that somehow something went wrong somewhere.”
Another 287(g) program supporter is Samuel Page, the sheriff of Rockingham County, North Carolina. It’s a much more rural area than Mecklenburg County, where controversy over the program erupted in 2018 when a new sheriff cut ties with it. Page said his county signed up for the program in 2020 and put about a dozen corrections officers through the training. He said there have been fewer requests for ICE detainers during President Joe Biden’s administration.