The McLennan County Sheriff’s Office is pursuing new powers to interrogate and arrest suspected undocumented immigrants during routine interactions as part of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement partnership.
The sheriff’s office signed a memorandum of agreement with ICE on Dec. 12 for a “task force model” agreement to work with ICE agents. McLennan County commissioners will vote on ratifying the agreement at their 9 a.m. meeting Tuesday at the McLennan County Courthouse.
Local immigrant advocates this week criticized the agreement, saying it could lead to racial profiling and deter witnesses from coming forward. But sheriff’s officials said they are required to partner with ICE, and they chose the option that involves the least effort from local law enforcement.
Texas Senate Bill 8, which passed in June and goes into effect Jan. 1, requires counties that operate a jail to participate in one of several ICE partnerships under the federal 287(g) program, including the task force model.
That model gives officers additional powers and wide discretion to interrogate suspected undocumented people during traffic stops, execute warrants related to immigration violations and join ICE agents during local operations.
The Heart of Texas Network for Immigrant Rights criticized the agreement in a news release Monday, stating that “this decision represents a significant shift in the role of local law enforcement in McLennan County.”
In the release, HOTNIR co-founder Blake Burleson said the task force model “blurs the line between community policing and federal immigration enforcement, with serious consequences for public trust, safety and civil rights.”
McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara could not be immediately reached for comment.
Sheriff’s Office Capt. Jason Barnum downplayed the effect of the task force model, which he said “seems to be the least intrusive to daily operations.”
“(Local) law enforcement doesn’t need any more tasks,” Barnum said in a phone interview Monday. “We’re already task-saturated. … It’s just giving you limited immigration authority on your normal routine duties, on your calls for services.”
Anali Looper, a Waco-based official with the nonprofit immigration legal firm American Gateways, argued that the task force model “is the worst option for immigrants in our community” because of its potential to increase day-to-day racial profiling and deter witnesses of a crime from coming forward.
“What concerns me about the task force model is the amount of discretion for an individual officer deputy, with perhaps very little oversight or guardrails,” Looper said in an interview Tuesday. “If the sheriff’s department actually goes forward with the 287 task force model and is implementing it in a concerted way, there will be less crime reporting from the immigrant community.”
Barnum said racial profiling would not be an issue for officers, who will have to complete a 40-hour online training before joining the task force.
Barnum said deputies would have discretion to use their new powers in limited situations. For example during “normal traffic stops for speeding or equipment violation, and then once the (officer) gets to the vehicle, during that encounter, some red flags pop up,” Barnum said.
Cen-Tex Hispanic Chamber of Commerce President Mito Diaz-Espinoza said he expected the agreement to make racial profiling more frequent for nonwhite residents of Waco.
“Somebody can just say, ‘Well, I had a suspicion that they were undocumented; I wanted to make sure,’ ” Diaz-Espinoza said.
Diaz-Espinoza, who grew up in Waco, said he has experienced racial profiling during Waco-area traffic stops. For example, he said officers have asked him to provide a Social Security number even after he provided a drivers license.
McLennan County Judge Scott Felton described Tuesday’s vote as a formality giving residents and commissioners a chance to ask questions about the agreement, which can now be signed by Texas sheriffs without county government input.
“We want to follow the federal direction on this,” Felton said. “There probably are going to be consequences that we don’t know about now, or we can assume, like […] what it might do to the construction industry. Those all concern us. But the main thing is, we’ve got to follow what the federal agencies say.”
City police departments are not required to sign a 287(g) agreement under Senate Bill 8.
Asked for a comment from Waco Police Chief Sheryl Victorian regarding ICE partnerships, police spokesperson Cierra Shipley provided the following statement:
“The Waco Police Department does not target, or profile individuals based on their legal status.
“We are committed to serving and protecting all members of our community with fairness and respect. We prioritize building trust through the power of connection and relational policing. Our job is to protect the community, and that means focusing on addressing crimes that directly impact the safety and well-being of the city of Waco, its residents, and visitors, regardless of someone’s immigration status. ICE has not requested our assistance for work they may have in the Waco area.”
