Last Monday the Jackson police department and Teton County sheriff’s office issued an open letter to the community assuring them that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had no intentions of a raid and that local authorities would not be conducting deportation for minor crimes.
Albany county law officials said the Trump administration’s changes to federal immigration law has not changed how they will respond to the issue at a local level.
“It’s business as usual,” David O’Malley, Albany County sheriff, said.
In Teton county those who commit serious crimes and are in the country illegally will face charges and deportation. The Teton County authorities met with federal immigration officials before releasing the letter, Jim Whalen, Teton County sheriff, said.
“Trump’s orders haven’t changed the law, they open up the categories for immigration,” Suzan Pritchett, assistant professor of Law & Center for International Human Rights Law and Advocacy, said.
The letter came as a response to rumors of a raid.
“We have trust in what the regional ICE office tells us and now we only ask that you trust us,” according to the letter, “We encourage you to continue to live, work and raise your families here with the knowledge you can do so without worrying if ICE is going to come knocking on your doors.”
Teton and Albany County are both under the jurisdiction of the Denver field office, which oversees enforcement of immigration laws in Wyoming as well as Colorado, Utah and Montana.
Trump’s executive order broadens the range of those instructed to be deported from those who had committed serious crimes to now include people convicted of any crime, people charged with a crime or to those who have committed acts which constitute a chargeable criminal offense. Additionally, trump’s order gives local law enforcement the power to act as immigration agents, Pritchett said.
The Albany County sheriff’s office makes a few arrests of undocumented immigrants a year that have warrants out for their arrest. The office looks at each case on a case-by-case bases, but usually if an undocumented person is stopped for a minor traffic violation they will be issued a citation and be sent on their way, O’Malley said.
“ICE traditionally hasn’t been concerned with those types of violations,” O’Malley said, “If ICE [was concerned with those violations] we would have those conversations then.”
