By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Ellis County Sheriff Scott Braun explained an agreement he signed with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during an interview with the Hays Post on Wednesday.
The agreement, which was signed in May, continues the longstanding practice of detention holds on detainees who are in the country illegally.
The agreement allows an Ellis County Sheriff's staff member to serve as a warrant service officer.
When a person is arrested and booked into the Ellis County Jail, their fingerprints are taken.
If ICE identifies a person as being in the country illegally through that fingerprinting process, it can request a 48-hour hold on that person after they have served their sentence for the crime they committed in Ellis County.
Braun said if a person is serving a sentence, for example, DUI, and ICE requests a detention hold, ICE agents have 48 hours from the end of that person's sentence to take that person into custody.
If they do not take that person into custody in that time frame, the person would be released, Braun said.
"ICE has been really good with us in letting us know if they are going to pick them up within 48 [hours] or to let them go," Braun said.
He added, "It has to be within that 48-hour window. We will not hold them one minute longer than that."
Ellis County Sheriff's officers do not have the authority to detain anyone solely based on their immigration status.
The holds only pertain to someone who is already incarcerated on local charges.
The KBI entered a 287(g) agreement – which refers to Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act – with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in February. Under the terms of the agreement, a limited number of KBI agents received ICE training, authorizing the agents to serve and execute warrants for some immigration violations and to issue immigration detainers.
The KBI used this agreement to detain 10 immigrants who were in the country illegally on Monday.
Braun said the Sheriff's office does not have that same 287(g) agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
"We are not trained in that, and we have enough things to do," Braun said. "We are not going to go out and stop people in the street and involve them in an investigation.
"These people are people being arrested for crimes committed, and then we get notification that they are here illegally."