Local law enforcement agencies across Alabama are entering into agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a move that is drawing concern from immigrant communities and civil rights advocates.

At least nine such agreements with sheriff’s offices are active in six Alabama counties, with three more pending — two with county sheriff’s departments and one with a local police department. These agreements, known as 287(g) programs, deputize local officers to enforce federal immigration laws.

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“(These) agreements basically give police the capability to do ICE’s job, ICE’s work, and the way the community sees it is police are now immigration officers. That’s the way it translates over to the community,” said Celsa Stallworth, a community organizer in Randolph County with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Alabama.

Colbert, Crenshaw, Elmore, Etowah, Franklin and Henry counties have at least one agreement with ICE. The Houston County Sheriff’s Office and Level Plains Police Department in Dale County have pending agreements.

The 287(g) program, rooted in federal law, allows local law enforcement agencies to partner with ICE, granting designated state and local officers the authority to perform certain immigration enforcement functions. These agreements have existed for years but are seeing renewed interest and implementation, partly due to executive orders incentivizing states to cooperate with federal immigration efforts.

There are different models of 287(g) agreements. The “jail enforcement” model primarily allows local authorities to check the immigration status of individuals booked into county jails and place “ICE holds” on those found to be undocumented, typically for 48 hours, allowing ICE to take them into custody. 

The “warrant service model” gives local law enforcement officers legal authority to execute civil immigration warrants for the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) office. 

The “task force model” trains officers to act as immigration officers in the community, potentially extending enforcement beyond jails to community detentions. ICE describes it as a “force multiplier for law enforcement agencies.”

While a proponent said these partnerships are crucial for public safety and addressing immigration concerns, critics warn of potential civil rights violations, increased fear within immigrant communities, and a strain on community-police relations.

John Summers, chief of the Level Plains Police Department, a community with a population of about 1,800 in Dale County, is awaiting final approval of a “task force” agreement after an ERO official suggested it would be “a good alternative” to addressing immigration concerns on a local level. He said Level Plains has had a steady Latino population over the years, which he claims were mostly in the country without authorization, though it’s not possible to make that determination without the judicial system.

Level Plains has a Hispanic or Latino population of about 10.3%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau‘s American Community Survey 2023 5-year average estimate. While the foreign-born population in Level Plains is unavailable, Dale County’s foreign-born population is 3.4%, under Alabama’s average of 3.8%.

“(It) gives us a little more give us a little more authority when it comes to dealing with illegals, and it gives us a better relationship with ICE directly,” Summers said.

But “foreign-born” doesn’t necessarily mean they are Latino or are living in the U.S. without authorization, said Allison Hamilton, executive director of the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice. She said that poultry plants in the Enterprise and Dothan area employ migrants on work permits.

“We saw that people were coming into Alabama to work at those locations. In that area, for example, you’re going to have a lot of people who probably have a work permit, who could easily be detained due to outdated records or just a complete lack of knowledge,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton said these agreements, which give law enforcement “the responsibility of acting as immigration enforcement without the proper knowledge,” could have unintended consequences. She said that immigration law is complicated and that officers receiving basic training on immigration duties aren’t equipped to deal with complex immigration cases.

“If you have a very simplistic understanding, but you’re tasked with trying to enforce that (law), a lot of people who shouldn’t be detained are detained, and this often leads to civil rights violations, and can come back to the officers later as incorrectly enforcing the law,” Hamilton said.

Summers said the department will handle each case individually. He believes most immigrants in the community are “trying to do better for themselves,” but they “have to do it the right way,” saying that these agreements will help the department hold more people accountable.

“We treat everybody fair, and we want to help everybody we can help, legal or illegal, but I mean, at some point you’ve got to help yourself, and you’ve got to follow the rules that we have sworn to uphold,” Summers said.

When asked if immigrants, regardless of status, should feel less safe in communities with these agreements, Hamilton said that if government officials, presumably most trained in immigration law and federal enforcement, are currently detaining people with legal status, she expected that local police performing such duties would lead to even more mistakes.

“I think anybody who is an immigrant or who appears to be an immigrant needs to proceed with caution at this point when interacting with any law enforcement,” Hamilton said, adding that these agreements are damaging law enforcement’s ability to build relationships in immigrant communities.

Stallworth said the consequence of these agreements and increased ICE activity has been the fear created within immigrant communities, affecting both undocumented individuals and naturalized citizens with mixed-status families.

As a U.S.-born citizen who “looks Mexican,” she said, “I am fearful.”

She fears for her naturalized mother, who speaks “broken English,” and for her husband, who may get caught up trying to “protect someone.” Stallworth said she had a conversation with a Latina woman in Shelby County who said she was concerned about everyday activities like picking up children from school or going grocery shopping.

“What we tell is that, make sure to follow the law when you’re driving. Make sure that your lights are working and things like that, because they have to continue living,” she said.