Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado gave an impassioned defense Tuesday of his department’s participation in a federal immigration enforcement program officials say is designed to identify and detain illegal immigrants facing serious criminal charges.
Regalado made his remarks during a public hearing on whether the county should continue participating in the program, known as 287(g), and followed remarks from several speakers opposed to the county’s participation.
“My deal is this: If all of you promise, OK, that if we get rid of 287(g), you will take these individuals to your house and watch them until they come back to criminal court to face the serious charges that they have committed on the streets of Tulsa, then I would be open to that,” Regalado said.
Regalado said he agreed with many of the speakers who defended immigrants’ rights to make better lives for themselves and their families in the United States. But, he said, that opportunity comes with laws that must be followed.
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“Without law, we would have chaos,” he said.
Under the 287(g) program, detention officers trained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are granted authority to place a detainer on an inmate until such time as the person’s charges are adjudicated. The person is then placed in ICE custody to await immigration court proceedings.
About a half-dozen people spoke in opposition to renewing the agreement for another year.
The program “undermines the oath of law enforcement,” one speaker said. Others argued that the county has not been transparent about how much the program costs taxpayers, and that some inmates are detained despite not having committed serious crimes.
Regalado pointed to the current list of inmates in the jail on ICE detainers, saying they all face serious criminal charges.
“They are available to the media and always have been,” Regalado said. “And yet, not a single solitary time have they ever been read publicly.”
Regalado, whose parents came to the U.S. from Mexico, said he knew better than anyone in the room the kind of havoc illegal immigrants who break the law create in communities.
“These individuals, again, are not committing crimes in our affluent neighborhoods,” he said. “They are committing crimes in the barrio, in the projects, in the impoverished neighborhoods.
“So for anybody to defend these individuals and mix it with the people who do come here to this country to make a better life is simply silly.”
The sheriff was the last speaker at the public hearing. Moments later, county commissioners voted 2-1 to renew the 287 (g) program for another year.
Commissioners Ron Peters and Stan Sallee supported the measure; Commissioner Karen Keith opposed it.
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