Democratic federal and state lawmakers have called on six small San Antonio-area communities to end their cooperation agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), arguing that the deals make their residents less safe.
U.S. Reps. Joaquin Castro and Greg Casar along with Texas Reps. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins and Trey Martinez Fischer were among those who sent a letter asking that Balcones Heights, China Grove, Hollywood Park, Sandy Oaks, St. Hedwig and Von Ormy withdraw from the federal 287(g) program. That initiative deputizes local law enforcement officers to perform federal immigration-enforcement duties.
“ICE has become an abusive and rogue organization at this point,” Castro, an outspoken critic of the Trump administration’s increasingly unpopular mass deportation program, said during a Wednesday afternoon press conference. “And for that reason, all of these relationships need to be reexamined.”
Castro and the others argued that local participation in 287(g) drives racial profiling, undermines trust in local police and hurts communities’ ability to deal with crime and emergencies. The lawmakers’ primary concern is the program’s Task Force Model, which allows ICE-trained local officers to engage in immigration enforcement during traffic stops and other routine police work.
The six communities targeted in their letter opted into the Task Force Model, the program’s most aggressive participation level and also the one that promises the most federal funding.
“Our communities will be afraid of our first responders, crimes will become unreported, victims of crime will be re-victimized and racial profiling — something I know well — will rise,” Gervin-Hawkins said of the program’s consequences. “This is not what our forefathers intended for us or our country.”
The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office participates in 287(g) but under a more limited model in which deputies can serve people already in custody with ICE’s administrative warrants. The city of San Antonio doesn’t participate in the program at all.
Beyond asking the six cities to pull back from the program, the lawmakers requested that they reveal details about their participation, including how many officers are deputized, how much federal reimbursement they receive and whether the money is tied to arrest targets.
At the time of the news conference, only China Grove had responded to the letter. Castro said the lawmakers hadn’t yet read the community’s response.
Castro acknowledged that cash-strapped municipalities may be tempted to cooperate with ICE because of the promise of federal funds. However, he urged the San Antonio communities involved in 287(g) to consider the downside. He pointed to a recent study that found San Antonio had 8,200 jobs due to Trump’s increased ICE enforcement.
“If you can imagine, if you’re struggling with money, it becomes very tempting to grab that money,” Castro said. “But what we’re saying is that if you do that, you’re putting your people at risk and overextending yourself. You’re also risking the livelihood of your businesses, because we’ve seen that people are afraid to go to places where they think ICE officers or police that are working with ICE are going to be.”
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