President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration is weighing giving local sheriffs more powers to help boot illegal migrants from the US by expanding a federal program to allow them to act as immigration agents.
As part of his mass migrant deportation crackdown, Trump’s team is aiming to expand the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 287(g) program so deputies can question and detain suspected illegals during their routine duties, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the plan.
Currently, 287(g) — which was added to the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1996 under President Bill Clinton — permits ICE to collaborate with state and local law enforcement to identify and deport “incarcerated criminal noncitizens.”
The program, which is voluntary, essentially allows participating local agencies to alert ICE of an illegal migrant in their custody or hold the migrant in jail for immigration authorities — but only after the alleged perps have been arrested on separate criminal charges.
