Changes made to immigration checks

BENTONVILLE — Benton County Sheriff Shawn Holloway changed his office’s participation in the federal 287g immigration program to felony arrests, according to a spokeswoman.

Lt. Shannon Jenkins, Sheriff ’s Office spokeswoman, said the office is no longer checking the immigration status of detainees in misdemeanor arrests.

The 287g program is voluntary and allows local law enforcement to identify detainees who might be in the country in violation of immigration laws. Every detainee brought to the jail was asked a set of questions, and federal immigration officials were notified if the answers indicated the person might be in the country illegally. The federal agencies then made a determination whether to detain the person for immigration violations.

Jenkins said Holloway made the change in July to keep families of nonviolent illegal immigrants together.

“We will continue to screen all detainees who have been arrested for violent crimes — domestic battery, rape, murder and crimes against children,” she said.

Washington County Sheriff Tim Helder announced in April his office was indefinitely suspending its participation in the program because of concern about covid-19 in the Washington County Detention Center.

The Washington County Sheriff ’s Office started

participating in the program in 2007, and Helder said the agreement was scheduled to end April 30. He and his staff will reevaluate the issue after the pandemic, he said.

Irvin Camacho of Springdale is a client advocate with the The Bail Project, which helps people who are arrested and unable to pay bail obtain their release. He was pleased to learn Holloway made the change in the program but believes the sheriff should end all participation in the program.

He said the program instills fear in people they may end up in jail on an immigration hold.

Helder and Holloway, along with Bryan Cox with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, held a meeting last year on the program.

Kenny Arredondo of Springdale called for an end to participation in the program and described it as racist and unconstitutional racial profiling.

Cox said at the meeting he was aware people in the immigrant community are afraid of the possibility of being deported but insisted many of those fears are unfounded. He stressed the 287g program only reviews individuals arrested and booked into jails. He said a person’s immigration status isn’t grounds for an arrest.

According to the information Cox presented, there were 13,302 individuals booked into the Washington County jail from October 2018 to September 2019. Out of that number, Cox said, 392 detainees, or about 3% of the number booked, were identified as having some federal immigration violation.

In Benton County, Cox said, the numbers were similar, with 11,156 individuals booked into jail and 402 “encounters” with immigration officials.