ICE enforcement in Idaho Falls has increased, local police say

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• ICE is conducting targeted arrests in Idaho Falls, increasing enforcement operations.
• Local police confirm ICE operations but aren't notified of specific individuals sought.
• Idaho Falls police provide peacekeeping, not detaining assistance; ICE operates independently.

IDAHO FALLS — Local law enforcement confirmed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is conducting a series of targeted arrests in Idaho Falls.

Idaho Falls Police Chief Bryce Johnson spoke with EastIdahoNews.com about ICE, which he confirmed is conducting enforcement and removal operations within the city.

EastIdahoNews.com has reached out to ICE for comment but has not received a response as of the time of publication.

Bonneville County Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. Bryan Lovell said that the sheriff's office hasn't received any communication from ICE about these types of operations. However, most of its communications stem from the jail side.

Targeted removal operations

In a conversation with Homeland Security Investigations, one of the three branches of ICE, Johnson said he learned that staffing levels for HSI had increased, and the agency is now able to conduct more enforcement and removal operations in communities across the country.

However, local law enforcement wasn't informed that new agents were working in Idaho Falls. Johnson said the public provided them with videos and photos of arrests posted on social media. He said officers were unfamiliar with the individuals and contacted HSI to confirm they were agents conducting these removal operations.

After confirming that these agents were part of HSI, the department learned that removal operations were being carried out against individuals who had committed immigration law violations.

"They're specifically looking for people that are not in compliance with whatever their mandate is to enforce immigration," Johnson said. "That's who they're out looking for, and that's who they're stopping."

Despite these operations being ongoing, Johnson said ICE officials have told them there is no mandate to notify local law enforcement of these operations. When they have been notified, it's often done out of courtesy.

When it comes to the individuals being sought, Johnson said the department is not told who they are. He said, "They may or may not have criminal records."

"They're not just out doing random traffic stops, is our understanding. They are specifically looking for people who are not in compliance with their mandate to enforce immigration," Johnson continued.

However, Johnson said that when there have been sightings of ICE in the community, the department has sent out officers to determine whether an actual ICE operation is underway. This is because, as it has happened in the past in other parts of the country, some individuals have fraudulently posed as ICE agents.

The other reason he gave is that the department wants to know who is operating within the city to avoid any blue-on-blue incidents, aid in keeping the peace if needed, and, in the event something major happens, local police would be responsible for dealing with the aftermath.

He recalled a social media post that was being shared about ICE agents conducting an operation at the Idaho Falls Regional Airport. Officers went to investigate but found nothing after reviewing security camera footage.

"Sometimes when people say, 'Hey, these things are happening,' it's just not," Johnson said. "(But) there are certainly federal agents out working in Idaho Falls right now."

Assisting federal agencies?

Johnson said that Idaho Falls police have not aided in any of the enforcement and removal operations that ICE is currently conducting, but have previously received calls for assistance.

"We don't go out and help them detain anyone. We don't go out and help them stop anyone. What we would provide is just keep-the-peace type services," Johnson said. "We don't have the authority, and will not help them detain people or stop people for immigration status; they know that we know that, and that's just the rule."

Homeland Security, U.S. Marshals Service, or other federal agencies often rely on local law enforcement in investigations of different matters. EastIdahoNews.com has reported on these investigations when it comes to drug crimes, child sexual abuse materials or warrants.

Johnson said there isn't any task force agreement, but the departments have worked with these agencies in the past on various investigations.

"HSI, Homeland Security Investigations, they're here in Idaho Falls. They've been in Idaho Falls for a long time, years and years and years," Johnson said.

287(g) Program

The 287(g) program is a federal law that allows local law enforcement agencies to enter into an agreement with ICE to conduct removal operations within their areas of jurisdiction. There are three models that participating agencies can adopt.

These models are jail enforcement, task force and warrant service officers, with the latter being the most common in Idaho. Locally, the Bonneville County Sheriff's Office has an agreement with ICE for the warrant service officers, which allows deputies to serve and execute warrants on suspected individuals in custody.

Lovell said that is the most those deputies do in this role, which saves time for ICE agents from having to come to the county to serve that paperwork for the individual in question.

The Franklin County Sheriff's Office has active agreements for a task force model, which allows its deputies to exercise limited immigration authority while performing their normal duties or participating in ICE-led task forces.

Discussing the agreement locally, Lovell said that while it's rare, there are individuals who come to the Bonneville County Jail, where jail staff discover they may not be in the country legally. These individuals who come to the jail have been charged with a crime locally.

"We notify them, and they do their research and go from there with whatever appropriate thing they need to do," Lovell said.

This is the most interaction that the sheriff's office has with ICE, aside from aiding in investigations into other crimes.

Once that determination has been made by ICE to serve a warrant, that individual still has to go through the local court system before being handed over to that agency.

Once they are sentenced, and depending on the term, he said the jail may handle it, or, if it's a felony, the case will fall to the Idaho Department of Correction.

"Our job is to hold people accountable for crimes. … There's accountability to victims and our community; it's important when we're facilitating through the judicial process," Lovell said. "You're just dealing with an immigration-type of issue versus crimes in other jurisdictions."

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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ImmigrationIntermountain WestIdahoPolice & CourtsPolitics
Daniel V. Ramirez