MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Federal immigration agents are seizing more people from county jails in some parts of the country. As Mose Buchele from member station KUT in Austin reports, it's a part of the president's immigration crackdown that most people cannot see.
MOSE BUCHELE, BYLINE: In Texas, the national deportation push often runs through county jail. Since 2017, state law has required that county sheriffs hand people arrested on other charges over to ICE if a background check reveals they might be in the country without legal status. Some counties go further, entering into what are called 287(g) agreements, giving local cops the authority to detain people suspected of immigration violations. This has been going on here for years, but since the start of Trump's second term, it's happening more and more.
JACOB KANG-BROWN: Texas has one of the highest rates of ICE arrests, and that's really being driven by the arrests that are happening in the local jails.
BUCHELE: Jacob Kang-Brown is a researcher who studies jails and immigration for the Prison Policy Initiative, a think tank that opposes mass incarceration. In Texas, he says almost 50% of new ICE arrests in the first half of this year are happening from county lockups. He's seen similar increases in other states, like Florida.
KANG-BROWN: In contrast, states that have protections that restrict local law enforcement from collaborating with ICE, they generally have much lower levels of arrest overall.
BUCHELE: The jail-to-ICE pipeline is not just growing in deep red counties in Texas. In Travis County, where liberal Austin is, Sheriff Sally Hernandez opposed increasing partnerships with ICE, but data from the Deportation Data Project shows the number of people flagged for immigration holds in jails went up about 40% in the first half of the year, reflecting statewide trends. Kristen Dark is a public information officer for the Travis County Sheriff's Department.
KRISTEN DARK: We want people to run to us, not away from us. If someone is a victim of crime, we don't want them to be afraid to talk to us.
BUCHELE: The trend has also raised concerns over due process. Austin-based immigration attorney Iris Albizu says a lot of the people that end up in ICE custody from jail have been arrested for low-level offenses, like driving without a license. They're presumed innocent until their cases are resolved, but if they're deported, they don't have a chance to resolve them.
IRIS ALBIZU: That person might be innocent for whatever they're charged with, but because now they're caught by Immigration, they're trapped.
BUCHELE: ICE did not respond to a request for comment, but the state's top Republican leaders have embraced the strategy of putting more local law enforcement on the front lines of the immigration crackdown. A program called Operation Lone Star tasked the Texas National Guard and state police to do immigration enforcement in 2021. When asked for comment on the rise in immigration enforcement and jails, Governor Greg Abbott's press secretary, Andrew Mahaleris, replied, Governor Abbott fully supports the Trump administration's efforts to deport those who intentionally broke our laws and entered our country illegally. The thing is, says lawyer Iris Albizu, ICE is increasingly detaining people who are in the country legally or are pursuing permanent legal status.
ALBIZU: What is shocking is that people that are already in the system, they already have a pending asylum application, family petitions by a U.S. citizen wife, and those people are being detained.
BUCHELE: Their numbers will likely keep growing in Texas. Earlier this year, Governor Greg Abbott signed a law that will mandate that all county sheriffs further expand coordination with ICE.
For NPR News, I'm Mose Buchele in Austin.
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