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Three state agencies have signed agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to assist with the deportation of undocumented immigrants in the Mountain State.
In February, Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed a letter of intent for the state Department of Corrections (DCR) to participate in the 287(g) program that allows state law enforcement to work with ICE to deport immigrants who are in the country illegally.
In a Wednesday press conference in Parkersburg, Morrisey announced the signing of agreements with ICE for DCR and the West Virginia State Police and National Guard as well.
“West Virginia does feel the impact of illegal immigration, and so all these people that pretend it doesn’t matter, it really does. We’re going to get the fentanyl off our streets,” he said. “I used to call it the Biden border disorder, because I knew that West Virginia was a border state because we had to wrestle with the consequences of seemingly unlimited amounts of fentanyl flooding into our state.”
State law enforcement will serve administrative warrants and prevent the premature release of undocumented immigrants. Morrisey also noted that the state will immediately begin training for the approximately 175 certified law enforcement officers in the National Guard.
Morrisey said his office also sent a letter to local enforcement letting them know of their options to be part of this as well.
The approximately 40-hour training program from ICE “delegates to states and local law enforcement officers the authority to perform specified immigration enforcement functions and the National Guard and state police,” Morrisey said. “They’re going to participate in the task force model, which includes a number of different authorities.”
According to the ICE website, the 287(g) Task Force Model, under which the state police and the national guard will operate, serves as a force multiplier by allowing state and local law enforcement agencies to enforce limited immigration authority during routine police enforcement duties. This model allows state and local agencies to carry out immigration enforcement activities in non-custodial settings while under ICE supervision and oversight.
The West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation will operate under the Warrant Service Officer Model. It allows officers to serve and execute warrants of arrest for immigration violations on undocumented immigrants in correctional facilities at the time of the prisoner’s scheduled release from criminal custody.
According to the governor, at 9 a.m. Wednesday, the state had 88 undocumented immigrants in custody. Thirteen are housed in West Virginia prisons who are convicted of crimes and serving a sentence. Twenty-eight have been arrested on federal or local charges and have active ICE detainers. Forty-six are being detained on immigration charges, including for matters such as failing to appear in court before a deportation judge or entering the country after previously being deported.