Hamilton County Sheriff Austin Garrett is full throttle on entering into a voluntary agreement with federal immigration authorities to identify unauthorized immigrants who have been arrested on criminal charges.
Garrett is still reviewing the office’s application but will sign and submit it in the next week or so, he said in an interview after speaking Thursday at the Rotary Club of Chattanooga.
“People come to this country for a better way of life or for the American dream,” Garrett said. “I’m focusing on the people who are here to cause a nightmare. These are the people that are committing violence, and they’re here preying on people.”
The 287(g) program allows local and state law enforcement agencies to enter into agreementswith U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to check databases and determine the immigration status of people who have been arrested.
The program is entirely separate from the Tennessee law that passed last year requiring law enforcement agencies to relay the immigration status of any individual to the appropriate federal agency, Garrett said. The 287(g) program complements the law.
“This is beyond that,” Garrett said of 287(g). “That’s a documentation process. This is actually assisting with immigration duties. This is actually us doing some of the work for them within the correctional facility.”
Garrett said the agreement with ICE would not change anything for taxpayers, since ICE absorbs the costs of training and equipment for the deputies dedicated to the program, and their salaries are already paid by the office.
The sheriff said his job is to hold people who are committing crimes accountable.
“That includes me and my staff going out when our federal partners have warrants to pick these people up,” he said. “I’m going to be with them most of the time, and we’re going to go pick them up. I may be in a political position, but I’m not a politician. I’m a working sheriff.”
Garrett’s focus is unauthorized immigrants committing violent crime, but “if you’re here illegally, you’re committing a crime,” he said.
“There’s poison flowing into this country across the border from, not just coming out of Mexico, it’s coming from all kinds of places, but it’s coming across the border,” Garrett said. “I’m going to do what the people … elected me to do, and I’m going to work to keep them safe.”
ICE’s website displays the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office as having a pending application, even though the sheriff said he has not signed it. He said he has every intention of signing the document and added that the sheriff’s office is going to pursue programs that help keep the people of Hamilton County safe.
Read the original story published by the Times Free Press here.