THESE TWELVE ELECTIONS COULD CURB ICE'S POWERS
https://theappeal.org/politicalreport/immigration-in-november-2020/
by Daniel Nichanian
excerpt:
...Below I look at 12 of the most important state and local elections on the ballot this fall that will affect ICEs reach and local immigration policy.
The list covers different sorts of offices. But the lions share are races for county sheriff. These officials have tremendous discretion on whether and how to respond to or collaborate with ICE. Thats because most sheriffs are responsible for running local jails, which hundreds of thousands of people go through every year, often with little to no oversight from other public officials. And these jails are a major funnel into the countrys deportation machine, especially when a sheriff is keen on making them so, as The Appeal: Political Report explained in July.
For one, most sheriffs have sole authority over whether their county joins ICEs 287(g) program. This partnership directly implicates sheriffs in harming immigrant communities by authorizing their deputies to act like federal immigration agents. Only 145 counties in the nation have 287(g) contracts at this moment, but that pool includes very populous jurisdictionsand thats precisely where Nov. 3 could upend the local landscape: In counties that cover millions of residentsin Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Texascandidates are running this fall on a promise of terminating existing 287(g) contracts. And thats just the tip of the iceberg. Sheriffs also decide whether they will agree to detain ICE prisoners in exchange for payments; and whether to honor so-called ICE detainers, which are warrantless requests asking sheriffs to keep jailing a person past their scheduled release to give federal agents time to arrest them.
All of these arrangements are on the line on Election Day, and with them the prospect that voters may slash ICEs reach, as they did in 2018, regardless of what happens in the presidential race.
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