Sheriffs would be required to cooperate with immigration agents under bill approved by Senate

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The state Senate on Tuesday passed a proposal that would require some Texas sheriffs to enter into agreements with the federal government to help identify undocumented immigrants accused of crimes.

Senate Bill 8, filed by Republican state Sens. Joan Huffman of Houston and Charles Schwertner of Georgetown, would require sheriffs in counties with more than 100,000 residents to request a 287(g) agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The bill would also create a $20 million fund to give grants to sheriff’s offices in counties with fewer than 1 million residents that enter into agreements with ICE. The grants would help cover costs a county would incur as part of a 287(g) agreement, such as detaining a person in jail for potential immigration violations.

The bill, which passed on a 20-11 vote, also allows the state Attorney General’s Office to sue a sheriff if the state believes that a sheriff is not complying with the law.

The bill was amended to allow the attorney general to file such lawsuits in the sheriff’s county rather than in Travis County, where government-related lawsuits are typically filed. Travis County is also one of the state’s more liberal counties.

The bill now moves on to the state House of Representatives.

The 287(g) program allows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to train selected law enforcement officers and deputize them to help enforce immigration laws. The federal program has two main models historically used by participating law enforcement agencies.

The jail enforcement model allows selected and ICE-trained local officers to question inmates in local jails about their immigration status and hold them for ICE if the deputy suspects the person is in the country illegally. The second model is known as a warrant service officer, which allows ICE-trained police officers to serve administrative immigration warrants.

Generally, if ICE takes a suspected undocumented immigrant into custody, local prosecutors would have to drop any charges against the person so ICE can start deportation proceedings. Or ICE can wait to pick up the person after their local criminal case has been adjudicated.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick designated SB 8 among his top priorities for the legislative session even before it was filed.

As of early March, 43 Texas law enforcement agencies already had 287(g) agreements in place, the majority of which are for the jail programs. Only the attorney general’s office, Nixon Police Department and sheriffs in Goliad and Smith counties had signed 287(g) agreements for the “task force model” that grants police limited immigration enforcement authority while conducting their routine duties.

Some Senate Democrats spoke against the proposal on Tuesday, saying it would cost a lot of money, especially if a county with over a million residents can’t apply for the state grant.

A couple of Democratic lawmakers pointed out that some law enforcement agencies that have participated in the 287(g) program have racially profiled Latinos while doing immigration enforcement — particularly former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona.

A federal judge convicted Arpaio of criminal contempt in 2017 for ignoring a previous federal judge’s orders to stop conducting immigration-related raids. In 2011, a different federal judge found that Arpaio’s deputies to racially profiled Latinos during immigration-related raids as part of his 287(g) implementation.

President Trump pardoned him in 2017 and Arpaio later lost his reelection bid. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is now prohibited from enforcing immigration laws.

Schwertner defended his proposal, saying that it’s important for local law enforcement to be able to identify undocumented immigrants during their day-to-day duties.

“The 287(g) program is about identifying criminality, not nationality,” Schwertner said.

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