Opponents said the agreement could undermine trust with the Hispanic community and increase the likelihood of racial profiling. But sheriff's officials said only two officers, both non-patrol, will be authorized for immigration issues.
The McLennan County Sheriff’s Office plans to train two officers to work with federal immigration authorities under a controversial task force partnership that McLennan County commissioners ratified Tuesday.
Commissioners voted unanimously for the agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after acknowledging community concerns that giving deputies immigration powers could lead to racial profiling and cause fear in immigrant communities.
Sheriff’s officials downplayed the significance of the agreement with ICE, saying they are required to partner with the federal agency but will keep their focus on addressing violent crime.
Some 35 protesters, among them immigrant rights advocates and faith leaders, marched four blocks from the sheriff’s office to the McLennan County Courthouse, joining others to speak against the agreement.
A crowd of about 50 packed the commissioners’ meeting room. McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara and several sheriff’s office staffers lined the back wall.
Authorized staff limited
During the meeting, Capt. Jason Barnum said he and one investigator based at the county jail were selected for training under the agreement, which will empower officers to interrogate suspected undocumented immigrants on behalf of ICE.
The McLennan County Sheriff’s Office has almost 500 employees, 40 of whom are patrol officers.
The two selected are not patrol officers and would likely have limited interaction with the public.
The task force model was one of three available options the sheriff’s office was mandated to select under Texas Senate Bill 8, which passed in June.
Other partnership options included the jail model, focused on detecting undocumented immigrants booked at the county jail; or the warrant model, focused on serving ICE warrants to those already in custody.
Task force model opponents urged commissioners to support one of those alternatives, saying they represent a continuation of an existing policy that involves federal immigration detainers.
“The task force model is not inevitable,” said Leslie Barrientos, a Waco native and task force model opponent, who spoke before commissioners. “It is a choice, and it is a choice that risks eroding trust across an entire community, not just among immigrants, but among anyone who values fairness, safety and equal protection.”
Sheriff’s office staff defended the task force agreement as the only model that avoids additional staffing. They said the jail-based alternatives would either overburden correctional officers or require hiring an additional correctional officer to perform work ICE is already doing.
“There’s a laundry list of stuff (correctional officers) have to do, so to add to those duties and maybe increase manpower would be more of a cost to us with overtime at the jail,” Barnum told The Waco Bridge before the meeting.
Commissioner D.L. Wilson agreed that jail staff are stretched thin.
“We’re short-handed in the jail now,” said Wilson, who represents eastern McLennan County. “It’s a tough situation to hire jailers, to keep staff.”
Roberto Lopez, a senior advocacy manager with the Texas Civil Rights Project, said the authors of Senate Bill 8 addressed the question of law enforcement burden directly.
The bill’s authors “reiterated in public hearings that the warrant service officer model is the best option for counties to be able to comply with the law without adding on additional barriers or burdens to the officers in the field,” Lopez said.
Felton: Sheriff decides
McLennan County Judge Scott Felton said Tuesday’s vote was a matter of transparency and public record.
He told commissioners that Senate Bill 8 removed the authority of the commissioners court to intervene in local ICE agreements, which are under the authority of the elected county sheriff.
“This train has already left the station,” he said.
The sheriff’s office signed a memorandum of agreement with ICE on Dec. 12 for the federal 287(g) task force model partnership.
Opponents to the model said Tuesday that it would undermine trust with the Hispanic community, increase the likelihood of racial profiling and chill local economic activity, even among Hispanic U.S. citizens.
“At this moment on our streets, many families are afraid,” said Blake Burleson, co-founder of the Heart of Texas Network for Immigrant Rights. “Some hesitate to take their children to school or to the doctor. If the sheriff’s office, an office that many have come to trust, begins arresting undocumented residents, will families still report crimes?”
After the meeting, Burleson told The Bridge he worries that the agreement will open the door for more task force officers in the future. He said a new sheriff could decide to take a more expansive view of the partnership.
Protecting witnesses during criminal investigations would take precedence over “deporting someone that may be a witness,” Barnum told the Bridge Tuesday morning, though he added there is no written policy for how sheriff’s deputies should approach such situations.
He said an individual who does not appear to speak English as a primary language or presents a foreign driver’s license during a traffic stop would constitute “red flags,” at which point the task force officer would contact ICE for assistance.
Asked by Commissioner Ben Perry if the task force agreement would cause the Hispanic community to lose trust in law enforcement, Barnum said, “I don’t believe we would.” He said racial profiling remains illegal, and the sheriff’s office does not engage in it.
Commissioners and sheriff’s officials framed the task force agreement almost exclusively in terms of compliance with state law.
Perry likened the law to an “unfunded mandate,” while Barnum avoided any talk of federal mass deportation goals.
“This approach allows the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office to comply with state laws while continuing to focus on the primary mission of public safety and service to the residents of McLennan County,” Barnum told commissioners.
