As the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown continues, the number of agreements between Homeland Security and local law enforcement are on the rise — including in Arizona.
The 287g agreements are generally made between ICE and local law enforcement — like sheriff’s offices. And it allows local entities to take part in immigration enforcement, either in jails or while serving warrants.
A bill crafted by GOP state lawmakers that would have forced local Arizona jurisdictions to be more involved in federal immigration enforcement. It was vetoed by Gov. Katie Hobbs earlier this year.
Still, ICE’s website shows eight law enforcement agencies in Arizona have agreements. Navajo and Yuma counties are the most recent additions, with Yuma joining just this month.
“The 287g agreements are going to allow a vast expansion of personnel that are available to ICE or to DHS writ large to conduct immigration enforcement,” said Syracuse University law professor William Banks, who specializes in military affairs.
The Trump administration is asking states to provide some 21,000 National Guard troops to assist the DHS at the border and within the U.S. Those troops would be doing various deportation and detention tasks, according to reporting by NPR.
Banks says if such troops are provided, it would also be in the form of a 287g agreement. But, rather than with individual counties or city police departments, it would be with the state.
Yuma and Navajo counties did not respond to questions about the details of their new agreements.
-
Thousands of refugees in the U.S. lost health coverage on Oct. 1 as new Medicaid eligibility rules took effect. In Arizona, unlike in most states, even children and pregnant women are being dropped. -
On Monday, dozens of agents swarmed a stretch of private land where the activists had been camped in and around a centuries-old cottonwood tree. Contractors tore down the tree and agents made multiple arrests. -
New research shows the ancient site is much older than previously thought. In fact, it’s now confirmed to be the oldest known scientifically dated geoglyph in the Americas, 2,000 years older than the first Pyramids built in Egypt. -
Protesters have been camped out in a plot of private ranch land in Lochiel for over two months now, trying to block wall construction as it neared a towering cottonwood tree that was the last of a grove slated for destruction to make way for two, parallel steel bollard walls. -
Ahmed Soliman has no ties to Equatorial Guinea. The 30-year-old man was born in Egypt and brought to the United States. when he was just 4 years old. He grew up in Phoenix. Now he’s believed to be in a hospital in the African nation.
