Texas sheriff's departments may soon have closer relationships with ICE due to SB 8

AUSTIN, Texas - Sheriff's offices in Texas may soon have closer relationships with ICE. 

Senate Bill 8 goes into effect on Jan. 1, where certain counties may have to help with federal immigration enforcement.

What is Senate Bill 8?

The backstory:

Senate Bill 8 will require sheriffs in Texas to apply to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 287 G Program, which delegates state and local law enforcement officers the authority to perform specified immigration functions under ICE direction.

"There is a number of us that have been 287 G sheriffs for many years," says Brian Hawthorne, the Chambers County Sheriff and president of the Sheriff’s Association of Texas. 

According to Hawthorne, certain sheriff’s departments across the state have been enrolled in the program for quite some time, but with the passing of Senate Bill 8, agencies have been flocking to apply.

"Now that it's passed, I feel like there are a lot of sheriffs that are doing everything they can to be compliant with the law."

For Texas sheriff’s departments, there are three models which they can apply to be a part of:

• The Jail Enforcement Model is designed to identify and process removable aliens — with criminal or pending criminal charges — who are arrested by state or local law enforcement agencies.
• The Task Force Model serves as a force multiplier for law enforcement agencies to enforce limited immigration authority with ICE oversight during their routine police duties.
• The Warrant Service Officer program allows ICE to train, certify and authorize state and local law enforcement officers to serve and execute administrative warrants on aliens in their agency’s jail.

"Now there are some sheriffs that have had any desire to want to be apart of the 287 G program. Mostly it has a lot to do with politics."

The other side:

Not everyone has been on board with the new law, which has drawn criticism from civil rights groups across the country. The ACLU of Texas has been in opposition to the bill since it was passed into law, saying in a statement:

"S.B. 8 will not make our communities safer, but it will force sheriffs to do the work of ICE in support of the federal government’s shameful mass deportation efforts. This bill will also divert limited law enforcement resources, lead to racial profiling, and drive victims and witnesses of crime into the shadows. The legislature should not strip local communities of their ability to make decisions about what keeps them safe."

Dig deeper:

"I disagree with them in the aspect that most of these people that this program targets are in the country illegally. If you are here illegally, and you're also committing crimes here in the state, then we should cooperate and work with ICE," says Hawthorne.

Hawthrone estimates that when the legislation was first introduced only about 20% of sheriff’s offices across the state were enrolled in the 287 G Program. With the bill now passed into law, Department of Homeland Security data shows that hundreds of sheriffs have entered into agreements for the 287 G Program.

What's next:

Not every sheriff’s office which applies to be in the 287 G program will be accepted, as Hawthorne says there are certain requirements to be enrolled.

In support of the new initiative, a grant program has been created to provide financial assistance to sheriff’s departments in counties with populations under one million who take part in the program. 

The funds can be used to cover costs related to compensation, training, and equipment.