The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement – ICE – has approved the Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office request to participate in the Section 287(g) program of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act.
The approval authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to deputize selected state and local law enforcement officers to enforce selected federal immigration law. ICE will provide the officers with training and authorization to identify, process, and when appropriate, further detain immigration offenders already in their custody.
Barnstable County Sheriff Jim Cummings stated the 287(g) program is about identifying criminality, not nationality.
The program will allow officials with the Sheriff’s office access to the ICE data banks to determine if an individual being held at the county correctional facility on a criminal charge is in the country illegally.
Cummings says his office looks forward to working closely with ICE to improve the public safety of Cape Cod.