As if South Carolina’s continuous assault on bodily autonomy and LGBTQIA+ communities wasn’t bad enough, the state’s law enforcement agencies have quietly been joining forces with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Usually, immigration enforcement is the job of federal agencies. However, under Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, ICE can train and authorize other law enforcement officers to identify, arrest, and detain people for deportation.
These ICE agreements are not only a threat to civil liberties everywhere, they put the public’s safety at risk and are an enormous drain on local government resources. A recent study indicates that a significant percent of participating agencies had records of anti-immigrant rhetoric, patterns of racial profiling, inhumane conditions and had made statements advocating inhumane immigration and border enforcement policies. Public safety is at risk when inexperienced, unidentified masked personnel start kidnapping people off the street. A study from our neighbors in North Carolina estimated that collaboration with ICE through the 287(g) program cost more than $81.7 million over a decade, and that tab was picked up by N.C. taxpayers. Additionally, the cost of detainees to local governments in North Carolina is estimated at roughly $7.4 million annually, none of which is reimbursed by the federal government.
Currently, sixteen counties and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) have signed agreements to assist ICE since Trump took office and began his offensive on immigrants in the United States. Three of those counties, Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester are home to most of our membership base. There are a few direct actions you can take to help:
Attend town, city, and county council meetings where budgets for law enforcement are decided and demand that our tax dollars not be used to participate in 287 (g)
Demand answers from our county sheriffs and SLED (links below) about the cost and outcomes of this program. What does it cost, in terms of manpower and dollars spent on gear and supplies? What are the outcomes, and how is this partnership with ICE affecting trust between police and the communities they serve?
Take everything you learn and start writing letters to editors, posting it on social media, and asking your local tv station to investigate it.
It’s hard to watch the atrocities that are happening at the national level but we cannot look away. Applying pressure on local government leaders is one of the few ways we can make change in this matter, and we are obligated to do so in the name of good citizenship and human decency.