SALT LAKE CITY — The State of Utah is partnering with federal officials with regards to handling illegal immigrants who are in custody at state prisons.
The Utah Department of Corrections announced Wednesday that they had signed a "Memorandum of Agreement" with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They said it will involve "transferring individuals who pose a risk to public safety into ICE custody."
The agreement will establish a program that allows ICE to train UDC employees.
UDC's announcement said they already have a history of cooperating with ICE to "remove dangerous criminals after their sentences are complete."
"It's not really a huge change for us, to be honest with you," said Spencer Turley, the deputy executive director of the UDC. "Regardless of of the administration in Washington, we've been doing what we've been doing now for a very long time."
Millcreek mayor claims ICE agents 'trampled the rights' of resident:
They said the agreement will establish a new "Warrant Service Officer program," in which UDC employees at both the Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City and the Central Utah Correctional Facility in Gunnison. The warrant service officers are expected to "coordinate and share information with ICE."
“The biggest change is we’ll have officers identified and trained by ICE that can serve and execute these warrants on behalf of ICE," Turley said.
Turley said they will select approximately 5-10 officers to train with ICE.
"It will be voluntary. If someone is not interested in participating, that’s great — there’s no requirement or expectation of their job that they do," he said.
Sergio Garcia is an immigration attorney based in West Valley City. He weighed in on how this could play out in the future.
“I think this might affect the prosecutor's office as well because they might see a lot more cases going to trial rather than getting resolved before trial," he said.
Judge orders ICE to release Georgetown scholar facing threat of deportation:
He shared what he suspects clients will ask after hearing about the new program.
“'Am I going to get the chance to see an immigration judge after I get picked up from prison? Am I going to get released and then get picked outside of prison, or am I going to be directly transported to ICE?'” Garcia said.
“My concern would be that they might want to change stuff and say, 'Well, we’ll have them serve some time in prison and we won’t even wait for them to complete it,'" Garcia said.
