A new legislation in Arkansas mandates that law enforcement agencies throughout the state assist federal immigration officials as the Trump administration increases deportations nationally. Sheriffs must apply to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) program that teaches and certifies officers to serve immigration warrants on illegal individuals already detained in county jails for other reasons, according to the law, which went into effect Tuesday.
However, some organizations—like the Arkansas State Police—are going above and above what the new state statute calls for. In order to stop people on the street, ask them about their immigration status, and possibly make an arrest for deportation, they are committing to a different kind of relationship with ICE. This program—which ICE refers to as its task force model—was resurrected earlier this year under Trump after being terminated during the Obama administration due to racial profiling litigation.
A memorandum of understanding between ICE and Arkansas State Police Director Mike Hagar was approved on July 7. It grants participating troopers the ability and authority to question any foreign national or individual suspected of being an alien about their eligibility to enter or reside in the United States. According to the task force agreement, officers do not require a warrant to make these arrests if they have reasonable suspicion that the foreign national being arrested is in the country illegally and will likely flee before a warrant can be acquired.
As of Thursday, no troopers are taking part in the task force program, according to Arkansas State Police spokesperson Cindy Murphy. This could be as a result of police having to go through training first.Task force officer nominees are required to finish a 40-hour online course that covers a variety of topics, including the extent of authority, immigration law, civil rights law, cross-cultural issues, liability issues, complaint procedures, and federal law requirements, according to the ICE website.
However, following the training, participating troopers will be empowered to make immigration-related arrests without the presence of an ICE agent.
Murphy stated that the trained trooper will make that decision. It is anticipated that the initiative will eventually run throughout the entire state.
In order to safeguard Arkansans against dangerous, criminal illegal aliens, Arkansas State Police is eager to collaborate with federal immigration officials under the 287(g) program, Murphy stated.
According to ICE data, the agency has arrested a growing number of undocumented immigrants in recent months who have neither criminal charges nor convictions. Immigration violations are usually civil offenses rather than criminal ones.Axios, using federal data acquired by the UC Berkeley School of Law’s Deportation Data Project, revealed in July that non-criminal ICE arrests increased in Arkansas last month. In June, the New York Times reported that, in comparison to 2024, the daily rate of ICE arrests in Arkansas increased by 176% between January 20 and June 10.
Murphy did not respond to a query from the Arkansas Times regarding whether the Arkansas State Police will make an arrest for civil immigration law infractions alone, even in cases where no criminal offense is suspected. How the state police would decide who to question about their immigration status and how the agency will steer clear of the racial profiling issues that plagued ICE’s task force operation in the past were other points she failed to address.
Murphy stated that since we already have training facilities and personnel, the state police should incur very little expense.
There are other red states that have adopted the recently resurrected task force concept besides Arkansas.Agencies in charge of state police departments in Missouri, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Florida have recently inked task force agreements, according to ICE’s website.State troopers in Tennessee have helped with extensive ICE operations in Nashville by stopping drivers, according to a June ProPublica article.
As of August, hundreds of local law enforcement agencies nationwide are also taking part in the task force program, including five in Arkansas: the Texarkana Police Department, the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Office, the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office, the Miller County Sheriff’s Office, and the Hampton Police Department, which serves the 1,200-person town in south Arkansas.
According to ICE records, all of those agreements were signed during the last six weeks.
Community advocates claim they are already assisting with ICE operations in Northwest Arkansas, which is home to a sizable immigrant population, even if Arkansas state troopers may not be actively involved in the task force program just yet. According to Irvin Camacho, co-founder of the Alliance for Immigrant Respect and Education, or AIRE, organizers noticed roughly three months ago that state police were stopping and arresting more people in other locations besides the state highways they regularly patrol. He claimed several people had been arrested in Rogers and Springdale.
According to Camacho, “something is happening because we’re seeing a lot more state troopers on the regular streets.” Additionally, immigrants are frequently the ones making those stops.
ICE activity in the River Valley and Northwest Arkansas is monitored by AIRE. The group recently shared a photo on social media that purportedly showed two plainclothes ICE officers posing as shoppers at a Fort Smith store just before they arrested a female employee. This week, AIRE shared a video of two ICE agents in Fort Smith dragging a man out of his pickup outside his house. Camacho said the victim was eventually freed after immigration officials found he was in the country lawfully.
Other organizations and people, including Migra Watch in Central Arkansas, are keeping an eye out for ICE activities in other parts of Arkansas.
The Arkansas ACLU stated that it is keeping a close eye on the matter. According to research, state and local police cooperation with federal immigration enforcement reduces the likelihood that immigrants will report crimes and seek assistance, said Megan Bailey, an organization representative.
According to Bailey, immigration infractions are civil in nature rather than criminal. Police enforcement of immigration laws rather than criminal investigations and enforcement results in racial profiling, erodes public confidence in law enforcement, and discourages crime reporting while jeopardizing public safety.
ICE in county jails
The Defense Against Criminal Illegals Act, a Republican-sponsored law in Arkansas that went into effect Tuesday, was approved by the Legislature in April by a nearly party-line vote. For undocumented immigrants found guilty of some major crimes, such murder or violent assault, it stiffens the criminal penalty. Additionally, it mandates that state prison officials and county sheriffs enroll in a curriculum known as the warrant service officer program.
The task force concept and the warrant service officer program are both a subset of ICE’s larger 287(g) program, which was named after an immigration bill signed into law in 1996 under President Bill Clinton. In the wake of the 9/11 events, it was initially used in 2002. Following training, certain local law enforcement officers from participating agencies are deputized to serve on behalf of ICE under the 287(g) program.
Although a 287(g) agreement is not required for local prisons and law enforcement to engage with ICE, the agreements are meant to facilitate and expedite ICE’s activities.
The warrant service officer program, the jail enforcement model, and the task force model are the three tiers of 287(g) agreements. To participate, agencies must submit an application to ICE, and they are permitted to take part in multiple program types.
The most limited form of 287(g) is the new Arkansas law, Act 654, which mandates that sheriff’s departments only apply for the warrant service officer program. ICE just educates and certifies personnel to serve and carry out administrative warrants on illegal individuals who are already in the custody of the local agency as part of the warrant service officer program. In order to expedite the transfer of an undocumented individual to ICE custody, a local officer trained under the warrant service officer program may serve the warrant if ICE is looking for someone who is being held in a county prison for an alleged criminal violation. Local law enforcement officials are not permitted by the program to enter neighborhoods and question or arrest individuals for suspected immigration infractions at their residences or on the street.
Additionally, the statute allows sheriff’s agencies to apply for the jail enforcement model instead of the warrant service officer program. It s also focused on people who are already in custody, but it gives local law enforcement broader authority to question people about their immigration status. In order to give ICE more time to conduct an investigation, the jail enforcement model permits police to check a person’s status using federal databases and permits prisons to detain inmates for up to 48 hours.
The task force model, the third 287(g) alternative, is not mentioned in the new law, perhaps because the Trump administration only recently revived it.This is the only model that allows a trained officer to interrogate a person they encounter while conducting their regular policing duties. The task force model allows officers out in the field to ask about immigration status when they pull someone over to give them a ticket. The officer could even arrest the person if the officer believed they re in the country illegally.
ICE records show that only two Arkansas agencies were participating in 287(g) before this June the sheriff s offices in Benton County and Craighead County, both of which signed up for the jail enforcement model years ago. In 2020, Washington County terminated its commitment to engage in the jail enforcement model.
Since June, though, a number of other agencies have signed up. The sheriff s offices in Baxter, Crawford, Johnson, Lafayette, Saline, Sebastian and Washington counties all signed warrant service officer memorandums of agreement with ICE in June or July. The Little River County Sheriff s Office signed up for both the warrant service officer program and the jail enforcement model.
It s likely other sheriff s offices and state agencies in Arkansas have applications pending with ICE.
The Pulaski County Sheriff s Office said it is applying for the jail enforcement model, the middle-tier program, rather than the narrower warrant service officer program.
We maintain a close relationship with our federal agencies and assist when needed, a spokeswoman said. If a detainee has an ICE warrant out on them, Pulaski County will notify ICE and put a 72-hour hold on them, she said.
The Sebastian County Sheriff s Office has opted for the least invasive option, the warrant service officer program.
Chief Deputy John Miller of the Sebastian County Sheriff s Office said the county will hold people in their jail, but will not assign task force officers or have deputies out serving warrants in the community.
If there s a detainer from a federal agency, we ll house them. If it s a court order from a local jurisdiction, we ll hold them, Miller said.
A spokesman for the New Orleans ICE Field Office which includes Arkansas in its jurisdiction would not say how many ICE agents are in Arkansas.The spokesman said that undocumented immigrants arrested in Arkansas are sent to detention facilities in Louisiana.
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