South Dakota’s governor and attorney general separately visited the U.S.-Mexico border this week and announced efforts to involve the state in federal immigration enforcement.
During a news conference Wednesday with a coalition of Republican attorneys general in Arizona, Attorney General Marty Jackley said he has authorized the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, which he oversees, to pursue a 287(g) agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The federal agency is within the Department of Homeland Security led by former South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem.
The agreement would allow state agents, after receiving federal training, to “identify, process, and detain individuals for immigration violations they encounter during their regular law enforcement activities,” the Attorney General’s Office wrote in a press release.
“I applaud and encourage the Trump administration to continue its efforts to close this border and to enforce our immigration laws across the United States,” Jackley said.
Meanwhile, South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden was in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Tuesday visiting South Dakota National Guard soldiers from the 109th Engineer Battalion. They’re on a yearlong federal deployment as part of “Operation International Drug Trafficking.” Their duties include supporting U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Following his visit, Rhoden announced Wednesday that he sent a letter of intent to Noem requesting a 287(g) agreement for the South Dakota Highway Patrol, which is part of the Department of Public Safety in Rhoden’s executive branch.
Rhoden’s letter specifies that he is requesting a task force model agreement, which would allow trained officers to enforce immigration laws during their regular patrols or investigations. The Obama administration discontinued the model in 2012 due to concerns over potential civil rights abuses arising from local and state law enforcement officers stopping people on the street and inquiring about their immigration status. The Trump administration revived the task force model this year.
Libby Skarin, executive director of American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota, said in a statement that 287(g) agreements have led to racial profiling, civil rights abuses and diverted resources from state and local law enforcement.
“Most of us can agree that the federal government needs to do much better on immigration policy and identify real solutions that are orderly, humane and fair,” she said. “Instead of imposing the federal government’s wishes upon every community in South Dakota, we encourage local control and support the right of local law enforcement to put the needs of their communities first by declining to participate in unnecessary, voluntary immigration enforcement.”
You can read the full article at South Dakota Searchlight.