Franklin County’s largest police departments and the Sheriff’s Department have no desire or plans to help the Trump administration round up immigrants who have entered the United States illegally.
A Homeland Security Department memo this week suggested the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency would seek voluntary help from local law enforcement agencies to pursue individuals in the country illegally.
But Greenfield Police Chief Robert H. Haigh Jr. said, “We didn’t sign up to be ICE agents.”
His counterparts in Montague and Orange expressed similar positions.
Homeland Security officials have said they are expecting an executive order from President Trump related to a memo sent out Tuesday that calls for expanding the federal effort to deport more of the millions of immigrants thought to be living in the country illegally.
But locally, Haigh said, plans are to “stay status quo.”
“We should concentrate on our folks’ needs, regardless of who they are; treat them the same, regardless of who they are, and enforce the criminal law,” Haigh said.
The memorandum released by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly states that ICE has been directed to “hire 10,000 officers and agents expeditiously, subject to available resource, and to take enforcement actions consistent with available resources.”
One specific provision refers to the 287(g) Program, which was dialed down by President Barack Obama, but that allows ICE to enlist local law enforcement to become “immigration officers.”
“To the greatest extent practicable, the Director of ICE and Commissioner of (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) shall expand the 287(g) Program to include all qualified law enforcement agencies that request to participate and meet all program requirements,” the memorandum reads.
This is being interpreted that a local law enforcement agency, like the Greenfield Police Department, can choose whether or not to enroll in the program.
Mayor William Martin said he read the executive order and has concluded, “There are very few mandates in there, plus it doesn’t come with any monetary assistance.” He noted Greenfield’s Human Rights Commission is advocating that the town declare itself a “Safe Community” for immigrants.
“We’re very satisfied with how we handle things now. We don’t infringe on anyone’s rights and we don’t target groups. We treat everyone equally.”
Montague Police Chief Charles “Chip” Dodge reiterated Haigh’s sentiment, saying he has no plans to volunteer his officers to become an ICE agent.
“We have so much work to do as it is, I couldn’t imagine asking my officers to do this additional responsibility,” Dodge said.
Dodge said the police value their relationship with the immigrant population in Montague and hope to keep it strong.
“In Montague our immigration population (consists of) very kind people, very hard working people,” Dodge said. “I see no need to jump on this immigration enforcement request.”
Police officials also noted they wouldn’t know who is an illegal immigrant and who is not — and cited a lack of desire to find out.
“I honestly have no idea if we have a tremendous amount of people here who are documented and undocumented,” Orange Police Department Sgt. James Sullivan said.
He said the police department currently has no active plans and sees this as affecting its own policing a “long way away.”
Franklin County Sheriff Christopher Donelan said he thinks the president’s pending order is about identifying people living in the country illegally.
“We don’t to go out and identify who is or who isn’t illegal,” Donelan said.
He said that the current database systems to which he has access offer no way to detect if someone has immigrated illegally, even if he wanted to do so.
“I have no interest in looking,” Donelan said.
You can reach
Joshua Solomon at:
jsolomon@recorder.com
or 413-772-0261, ext. 264