How does the Detention Center cooperate with ICE?
Update
Last week we covered the Committee’s examination of how the Fayette County Detention Center cooperates with Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Committee saw three presentations related to this issue: the Community Corrections intake process, the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, or SCAAP grant, and ICE Detainers.
As a reminder, the main points of cooperation between the City of Lexington and ICE occur with the Fayette County Detention Center (FCDC). Here are a few key takeaways:
The FCDC notifies ICE of arrests of foreign-born individuals.
In some cases, ICE assumes custody of arrested foreign-born individuals. Once in ICE custody, individuals can be further detained even if local law enforcement resolves the charges.
Since 2013, the FCDC (via the City of Lexington) receives a reimbursement from the Federal Government for some personnel expenses incurred during undocumented foreign-born individuals’ detention.
The reimbursement is in the form of a grant award through the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP).
Discussion began with the 11th District’s representative, Jennifer Reynolds, explaining why she wanted to bring this item to the committee. She said she’s had several concerned residents reach out to her about the SCAAP grant and has since worked to better understand the city’s process for requesting and using the grant, along with its relationship to the jail and ICE. She also said that she’s voted against anything related to the grant since those concerns were brought to her. Importantly, she stated that how the jail works or doesn’t work with ICE can affect public safety in our city and her goal in having these presentations and this item in committee is to educate the committee and the public about current procedures and see if there are any areas that could be improved for the betterment of the community. The main takeaways from the Intake Process presentation were:
Place of birth is always asked and recorded into the jail tracker system as records. Before July 2019, the jail would always notify the consulate of the person’s country of birth. After July 2019, consulates are only notified if the person requests it, unless the country is one of the 57 countries that the jail is mandated to notify.
Previously, if someone said they were foreign-born, their name was automatically sent to ICE. The jail stopped doing this in 2019.
The jail works with several other federal agencies along with ICE: the DEA, US Marshals, ATF, and ABC
The jail is required to ask everyone their country of birth, but if the person being booked is a citizen, they are not legally required to answer.
The department of corrections doesn’t make any special accommodation for any agency - access to information is allowed to all the other agencies the city works with and is in cooperation with
The city does not have an ICE desk - it’s more of an informational desk or portal that all agencies use to access information from the city’s department of correctionsThe main takeaways from the SCAAP grant presentation were:
The SCAAP grant was set up in 2003 under the impression that undocumented immigrants weren’t paying taxes and therefore the grant was needed to offset the cost of taxes for the jail. The reality is that the jail is getting the tax money to run the jail whether or not the inmates are documented or undocumented. This grant now helps offset costs of trainings and programs
The name of the grant itself is derogatory to the immigrant community
The grant helps to pay for the jail’s GED program and materials. The program, which is a partnership with BCTC, fluctuates in cost depending on the grant the college receives. For example, in 2017 the program cost 20,000, but in 2020, it was $8,000. If the jail did not receive the SCAAP grant, it would have to find funding for this program elsewhere in its budget.
There would be no procedural changes without the grant.
Sarah Adkins, an immigration attorney, also gave a short presentation about ICE detainers. Her main points were:
ICE detainers or holds are not mandatory
They are unconstitutional
They increase liability
They often increase detention time
They do not make communities safer - they increase distrust between communities and law enforcement
Almost 24% of cities limit their involvement with ICE in some way
At the close of the discussion, committee chair James Brown recognized the issues with the SCAAP grant and the importance of finding other ways to fund the programs currently made possible by the grant, while also acknowledging current budget limitations. He mentioned policies may be quickly changing depending on what comes down from the Biden administration and the need to stay up to date with these changes. Finally, he brought up the possibility for local partnerships that could guarantee undocumented arrestees access to resources and information that might currently be unavailable due to language and other barriers.
CM Reynolds closed the discussion, stating that we have a large immigrant population in Lexington that contributes to our economy and all types of industries. She said it’s important that as we move forward that we take that into consideration and that our policies and procedures are respectful of everyone. She is committed to working with the administration on finding other funds to support the programs currently funded by the SCAAP grant. She is going to leave this item in committee to continue to work on these items because how the jail interacts with ICE plays a role in the safety of the community. She closed by saying we have a lot of people fearful of ICE and of public safety in general because of their negative interactions with ICE, so I want to make sure that we’re doing the best that we can.
Here's one thing this week to watch in city hall... a presentation in the Planning & Public Safety Committee on how the Fayette County Detention Center cooperates with Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE).
📺 - Watch this presentation live during the Planning & Public Safety Committee on Tuesday, February 2nd, at 1:00pm.
Why should you care?
You should care about this if you are interested in the relationship between the City of Lexington and the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. A history of controversy has long surrounded ICE. As ICE's tactics have fallen under increased scrutiny in the past decade, pressure has mounted on cities to review how they cooperate with the agency. Cities from Birmingham, Alabama to Portland, Oregon, have either refused to work with the agency or have made significant changes to how their relationship works. This presentation will detail the relationship between the City of Lexington and ICE.
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Cooperation & funding overview
The main points of cooperation between the City of Lexington and ICE occur with the Fayette County Detention Center (FCDC). Here's a quick explainer about that:
The FCDC notifies ICE of arrests of foreign-born individuals.
In some cases, ICE assumes custody of arrested foreign-born individuals. Once in ICE custody, individuals can be further detained even if local law enforcement resolves the charges.
Since 2013, the FCDC (via the City of Lexington) receives a reimbursement from the Federal government for some personnel expenses incurred during undocumented foreign-born individuals' detention.
This reimbursement is in the form of a grant award through the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP).
FCDC's intake process & communication with ICE
When the FCDC takes individuals into custody, they ask for the person's Place of Birth (PoB), in addition to several other pieces of information.
If the arrested person is from one of 57 countries, FCDC automatically informs the countries' consulate of the arrest.
US arresting agencies are required under the Vienna Convention to notify consulates of many other countries if they arrest an individual of their country's nationality.
Since the FCDC is not the arresting authority, they are not required to provide this notification, but they do so to "ensure all requirements are met."
In addition to requesting PoB, the FCDC also takes fingerprints of the arrestee. External agencies -including ICE- receive those fingerprints through the national database.
External agencies like ICE can place a detainer on the arrestee to request that the FCDC transfer them to the agency's custody.
If ICE specifically requests that FCDC detain an arrestee, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issues a notice called a Form 247.
If DHS takes custody of an arrestee, they can continue to detain them on Federal charges even if local law enforcement agencies resolve their arresting charges.
City of Lexington's reimbursements for the detention of undocumented immigrants
Since 2003, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have awarded grant funding to the City of Lexington and Fayette County Detention Center for the detention of undocumented immigrants.
This funding program is called the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP).
DOJ/DHS issues SCAAP grants to cities across the country for reimbursement of "incurred Correctional officer salary cost for incarcerating undocumented criminal aliens."
This funding only applies to undocumented immigrants with the following characteristics:
Were born outside the US and have no claim to citizenship
Were in FCDC's custody for four or more days
Were charged with either one felony or two misdemeanors
The FCDC currently uses SCAAP funds for its reentry program. The DHS/DOJ requires that the agency report the use of the funds when the grant is accepted.
The award amount that the DHS/DOJ has awarded the City of Lexington/FCDC for undocumented immigrants' detention has varied from year-to-year.
Over the past six years, City of Lexington's average annual reimbursement/grant award through the SCAAP program was $32,833.
The highest award in the past six years was in FY17 - $44,231. The lowest was in FY19 - $9,477.
Want to get involved? Here's how.
Reach out to relevant service organizations -good options for this issue would be: Community Response Coalition, Neighbors Immigration Clinic, & Maxwell Street Legal Clinic.
Apply to be on a Board or Commission - good options with vacancies (as of 2/1) for this issue would be: Bluegrass Crime Stoppers, Mayor’s International Advisory Commission, Social Services Advisory Board.