In Oklahoma, local jails and other lock-ups are being used to facilitate about half of the state's immigration arrests, a new report says.
The findings come from Prison Policy Initiative, a national nonprofit that studies mass incarceration in the United States.
Researchers found that agreements between ICE and local law enforcement have become an essential part of increased deportation efforts under the Trump administration. The collaborations allow state police, troopers and corrections officers to act as local arms of the national immigration enforcement agency, carrying out arrests at a growing rate.
In Oklahoma, that means arrests at local jails and lock-ups accounted for half of the 2,323 people arrested for immigration charges in the state between May 21 and October 15.
People who have already been booked into custody by local law enforcement are being flagged for immigration charges at facilities collaborating with ICE.
But researchers say large numbers of ICE arrests at local jails are not an indication that immigrants and asylum seekers are more likely to be arrested for a crime. Robust data from Texas, for example, showed that undocumented immigrants had much lower arrest rates than U.S.-born citizens. Instead, in too many cases, a traffic stop can mean deportation, the report says.
The 1,176 people arrested on immigration charges in Oklahoma jails recently could have entered custody for any number of reasons.
In general, most people in jails have not been convicted of a crime. Over 80% of people in jails have not been convicted and are legally presumed innocent. Most are held for low-level offenses like loitering and public intoxication, not violent crimes.
In Oklahoma, ICE has also started relying on local jails and shuttered prisons to hold people with immigration cases.
Agreements with local law enforcement can take many forms. As of August, 18 local law enforcement agencies had signed 287(g) contracts, allowing them to interrogate and arrest people for federal immigration violations, and then hold them for deportation processing.
Since September, state highway patrol troopers have been tasked with leading three "mass arrest" operations along different parts of the state border, stopping every commercial truck that passes through weigh stations. Hundreds of people have been arrested.
According to data obtained by the Deportation Data Project, only four other states had higher arrest rates for immigration charges than Oklahoma in recent months.
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
