Media Milwaukee’s Amanda Maniscalco posed a series of questions to ICE Media Relations spokeswoman, Manda Walters. Here is what she said.
What are some of the reasons that people in the community are brought in and detained? For instance.
ICE is involved in departmental security and most of this is available on the website. We are tasked with enforcing as well as National Security and Public Safety tasks. So that means not at the border, but our sister agents are charged with interior border protection. The borders and they are the ones checking visas as people go through at points. Also looking at goods that are moved into the country and insuring that they have all the proper documentation.
So what we do at ICE as far as completing our mission to protect the border from cross border crime and illegal immigration is that we are ensuring that the illegal movement of people and goods is minimized or limited based on INA. So the INA is the federal law that provides jurisdiction, to our Agency, necessary to enforce the laws that are written there. There are general classes of aliens, that are ineligible to receive visas or they are ineligible to enter this country. That is spelled out very clearly in our Constitution under the Immigration & Nationality Act. When you ask about instances where we would be looking for people, they always need to be related to Public Safety, terrorism, or illegal immigration, it must have one of those three components in order for us to have any interest in that individual.
If you look more closely at the INA, which I really recommend you do, there are two different sections; there is the Section 212 and Section 237. Section 212 will give you the general classes of the major groups of individuals that would be served with a notice to appear and go to court, because they are here illegally; and one is illegal entry and the other is communicable disease, drug abuse, moral turpitude, control substance and multiple criminal convictions, espionage and terrorism activity. Also, Nazi persecution or genocide, it they can traced back to other countries where they participated in their country’s genocide, where we have had cases going back to Rwanda where those people who were participating in the killing of their people, were hiding out in our country, and we would not come across them until that point.
So that is under Section 212, and under Section 237, it goes on to explain what categories of individuals would be eligible for deportation or removal. So one is, they would get a day in court, another way is a Lawyer could give them other options.
The other section goes over whether or not someone would be qualified to be removed and that includes people who violate a status that they are here under. If they did come here on a visa, and just never left, just like in many other countries there would be a consequence. Those people are not entitled to a day in court because they have already been allowed to renew and did not take all the steps so they can be immediately removed. In addition to that, there is also alien smuggling, so if someone is bringing groups of other people across the border, you’ve probably heard about the tractor trailers across the South, where it happens quite often. It also happens in the interior, in different cases where they might be moving, people who are not in control of their own identities or their own payroll. That is what we classify as Human Smuggling. If they obtain a Visa by fraud, or if they have a conviction of a crime of moral turpitude within five years of entry that can also constitute an automatic removal. Aggravated felons, controlled substances or firearm offenses, or mostly because they are not citizens, they do not qualify for firearms. Also, domestic violence will fall under that, violation of a protective order, or false claim to a United States citizen, or lying to law enforcement, and finally any terrorist activities. So 237 is basically saying that any of these people can be removed without a hearing. However, most are usually summoned to appear at a hearing, at the Immigration Court, which is not under Homeland Security, but under the Department of Justice. And then those judges will hear both sides, the side of the government and what their case is, and whether or not that person is removable, is not here on a legal basis, and that individual has the opportunity to have Counsel, and representation at that hearing, and ultimately the Judge decides if they stay or go… or if they have a bond or any other situation, that our Agency is tasked with carrying out the orders issued by that Judge.
How do people who are unlawfully here go from living in the community to being detained by one of your agents? If someone is arrested, for example, does the jail notify you as to their arrest?
That’s a great question. Actually what happens is that if that person has never been encountered before, they are probably able to live quite some time within the community. There could be instances where they commit a crime in their country of origin or maybe wanted on Interpol, but they can sometimes go 10 or 15 years, that happens all the time. In other cases, if someone interacts with local law enforcement, once you are fingerprinted that goes into a national data base that then is distributed to both Homeland Security and the FBI. If that person got in through our Southern, or Northern border or a port of entry, and they were provided a notice to appear because perhaps they did not have a Visa when they came in, and they were given a date because our court system is so backed up. It could be three years down the road.
If they do not show up for that court date and then go live in a community for five, 10 or 15 years, they could do that, and probably not ever hear from us.
So living under the radar is a risk, but what is the benefit of appearing at the court date for the notice to appear to get their citizenship?
Absolutely not. To get your citizenship you go through a different Agency. The Citizenship and Immigration Service Agency, which is also under DHS. The reason they are having consequences is that they are here illegally. So maybe it is better for them not to go to court.
Do Milwaukee officers, if they come across a drunk driver, do they contact a local ICE agent?
As soon as someone is fingerprinted, it goes into a national database, and that database then flags DHS as well as the FBI for that individual. It those prints are in the system, they become a target. It’s not the jails that contact us, we have officers that continually monitor different public sites that have individuals listed there for that reason. If we can take custody from a local jurisdiction without having to go through a community, assuming they are in jail for a criminal offense, it reduces the risk our officers are taking and the community itself, because they are weaponized and do not want to take drastic measures at any time.
It’s a notification we receive through the national data base of all of our fingerprints.
So how or when does a person crossing the border get initially fingerprinted?
When someone presents themselves at the border, when you are served that notice to appear, you will be fingerprinted at the same time.
Once ICE is notified by the fingerprint database, do they know where to go to detain the person?
Manda: Well no…that is why our officers are trained as police, because they have to do investigations and a lot of background work. Sometimes people don’t stay at their given addresses. Or some give the wrong address, so sometimes it takes real detective work to find them.
So the jails don’t know if they have an (unauthorized immigrant)?
No not at all… and sometimes depending on the jurisdiction they specifically do not want to know.
So what is the point of the 287g then?
Oh. that is a great question. If our officers determine that we do have a person we are targeting in our local jails, that is when we serve a detainer. A detainer is asking that jail, once he or she has served their time.. call us and we will take custody.
Let’s say an (unauthorized immigrant) is arrested for drunk driving, they first serve their time and then they are taken?
Actually, it’s up to each jurisdiction. Sometimes individuals would prefer to be removed then to sit in jail. That is worked out between the state and district attorneys.
It used to be that 287g was different than what it is today. Now 287g is only a jail model, that means that ICE enters to memorandums of understanding with a facility that says, we will train an officer in immigration law, in everything our officers are aware of that could include weapons training, or hand to hand combat. In return, that local facility instead of contacting ICE, every time they have an individual who meets the standard or already has a removal order from a Judge, then that officer can make that initial interview.
For example, there is only one 287g program in the whole Chicago AOR.. which includes Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin. In the last year, they have only had one case that was fitted from having that officer there and that individual was not even removable.
What do your field agents at your various offices do?
They would do the same thing as any other officer around the country. There are three different divisions, one is fugitive operations, this is where individuals already have a removal order. They are in this case doing the police work to locate the individual and make the arrest. They document it and fill out the reports, a big component of what they do.
The third category is our alternative to detention. These are people who have already been arrested or apprehended and have been served an NTA, and there is area of that enforcement or removal operation that monitors..like probation or ankle monitors. They are expected to check in at certain times, they may or may not already been before a Judge.
The other piece I have not mentioned is Homeland Security investigations. These are the ones that look closely at the prevention of terrorism, and combating illegal movement of people and goods. So they are conducting investigations, on counterfeiting, human trafficking and cyber exploitation, money laundering… all different things.
After serving local sentences, where does ICE hold the detainees?
It depends because some facilities have Video Tele-Conferencing options. If they have that option, sometimes ICE will work with that facility to enable that person to appear via VTC, before they are released. Otherwise, if they are released and ICE takes custody, yes, they can wait in a different facility until they are removed.
There are immigration courts all across the country, and if that individual would want to live in Indiana after their local release, there is a court there in Indiana so they might be transferred somewhere closer to that court. Or like from Milwaukee, the closest court for immigration is in Chicago. So it could be that they then would be moved closer to Chicago.
If it is determined that someone is (an unauthorized immigrant)… what is the outcome likely to be? Do 100% …get deported? What would the purpose of a court date if 100% did get deported?
Another good question! We don’t keep a record of wins or losses. It’s up to the courts to decide. So it’s hard to give you a percentage. I can tell you in our last quarter date, from February 2018 Quarter 1 – Quarter 3, that we removed 189,000 people from just the six state area.