ACLU report calls out immigration enforcement program in Dakota County

The American Civil Liberties Union says its new study is another reason that Nebraska’s Dakota County Sheriff’s Office should end a controversial program that allows local police to enforce federal immigration law.

The local civil rights nonprofit issued the statement following a study by its national office on so-called 287(g) agreements. Dakota County, in northeast Nebraska, is the lone law enforcement agency in Nebraska among the 142 across the nation that have a formal partnership with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to carry out certain federal immigration duties.

The ACLU report released Wednesday is titled “License to Abuse: How ICE’s 287(g) Program Empowers Racist Sheriffs and Civil Rights Violations.”

Researchers noted concerns with the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office, including reporting that it had a record of civil rights violations, anti-immigrant statements and inhumane jail conditions.

Dakota County Sheriff Chris Kleinberg did not return messages Wednesday from the Nebraska Examiner. He has said in the past that his county’s agreement applies only to the screening of jail inmates for their immigration status and that it can help identify criminals who lie about their identity.

The ACLU of Nebraska notes that it and a community partner, Unity in Action, held a spring candidate forum and that both candidates running for Dakota County sheriff expressed their intention to continue the 287(g) program.

Jane Seu, legal fellow for the Nebraska ACLU, said she hopes the new report encourages Dakota County to halt the immigration program.

“These agreements create a culture of division and suspicion that doesn’t serve anyone — least of all the community these departments are supposed to protect,” Seu said. “We can’t train our way out of the problems these agreements cause and enable.”

Among findings in the report: 59% of participating sheriffs had records of anti-immigrant statements; 65% of participating agencies had records of racial profiling and other civil rights violations, such as excessive use of force; and 77% of the agencies managed detention facilities with “inhumane conditions.”

The ACLU’s report follows suggestions from federal officials in 2021 that the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office get training to “address discriminatory behaviors” related to “immigration encounters, including implicit or unconscious bias and racial profiling.”

That advice from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties was issued to ICE officials after a complaint by the Nebraska ACLU of Nebraska.

When running for election, President Joe Biden said he would end  287(g) partnerships entered into during the Trump administration and “aggressively limit” the use of it and similar programs “that force local law enforcement to take on the role of immigration enforcement.”

The ACLU report says that Biden has ended only one contract.

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