Jail ending agreement deputizing staff as ICE agents
Associated Press— A Massachusetts jail is ending an agreement that deputizes some of its staff to act as immigration agents. Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph McDonald said Friday in an interview on WATD-FM that his office has notified U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that it is terminating a program that dates to the early 1990s. Lawyers for Civil Rights, a Boston group, said the sheriff’s decision comes after a state judge ruled in July that a lawsuit it filed challenging the sheriff’s authority to enter into the agreement could proceed. Laura Rotolo, of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, said opponents have long argued that the agreements waste state taxpayer dollars by needlessly entangling local agencies with federal immigration enforcement. In May, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security cut ties with the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office, including ending its similar contract and another arrangement to house immigration detainees, citing complaints of inhumane conditions at its jail in North Dartmouth.
History of this topic
Fed review sought of jail’s immigrant detainee conditions
Associated Press
US ends use of 2 immigration jails accused of mistreatment
Associated Press
ICE detention and coronavirus: Immigrants feel like ‘sitting ducks’
CNN
Nashville to end contract to house ICE immigrant detainees
Associated Press
ICE still playing role in L.A. jails despite Sheriff Villanueva kicking agents out
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