The Trump administration is laying the groundwork for state and local law enforcement officers to participate in mass deportation efforts, an unprecedented move that could deputize thousands of officers with the power to arrest immigrants across the U.S., reports Bloomberg CityLab. A memo from the Department of Homeland Security invokes a 1996 provision that allows the agency to give state and local police immigration enforcement powers in certain circumstances. It serves as a call to action to jurisdictions that have expressed a desire to help implement President Trump’s mass deportation agenda. It could result in local police and sheriffs investigating immigration offenses alongside their other work. Since the memo, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that state troopers and special agents will be deployed to help identify immigrants with warrants across the state. Florida’s legislature passed a bill, after consulting with the Trump administration, to increase law enforcement cooperation with the federal government. Despite border arrests dropping to the lowest levels since the height of the pandemic, the memo cites an “actual or imminent mass influx” of immigrants at the southern border that’s affecting residents of all 50 states. That designation is the basis for requesting the help of the nearly 800,000 state and local police officers across the U.S.
There are likely to be legal challenges to this effort, in part because the scope of the powers the provision grants have never been tested, said Emma Winger of the American Immigration Council. “It’s a pretty remarkable assertion of authority.” Finding and detaining immigrants, especially those in the interior of the country, is resource-intensive. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which traditionally handles interior immigration arrests, has 20,000 employees and only a small fraction of them are tasked with this work, DHS has authorized the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Marshals Service and other federal law enforcement agencies to participate in immigration enforcement actions. The memo marks the latest attempt to bolster those ranks. Already, lawmakers in Republican-led states are rushing to create the infrastructure for collaboration with the Trump administration’s mass deportation effort. The legislatures in Florida and Tennessee convened for special sessions this week to discuss similar immigration-related bills. Both states are looking to create centralized, state-level immigration enforcement divisions that would coordinate with federal authorities. They also want to encourage local government participation in these efforts by setting aside funds. Florida is proposing up to $500 million in grants for places that help immigration enforcement.
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