NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The Tennessee Department of Correction is working to lock in a partnership with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

TDOC is listed as a pending partner in ICE's 287(g) program. It would let correctional employees interrogate inmates about their immigration status and start the process to have them deported.

The department oversees 14 prisons, housing about 20,000 inmates, as well as 46 probation and parole offices, supervising roughly 75,000 offenders across the state.

"These folks are already busy enough," the executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, Sergio Perez, said. "This means putting more on their plate."

If approved, TDOC would be part of the jail enforcement program that allows correctional employees to question inmates about their immigration status and file paperwork to hold inmates for ICE.

The Putnam County Sheriff's Office already has a similar agreement. Meanwhile, deputies in Giles and Sumner County can serve warrants.

"The communities who participate in 287(g) agreements end up shifting scant public safety resources, refocusing them on immigration efforts, and members of the community across the board suffer," Perez explained.

Macon and Bradley counties are also seeking to join the ICE program.

"The situation continues to escalate, and Tennessee really seems to be frankly at the forefront nationally," an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Nicholas Goodell, said.

TDOC was not available for an interview but said, "TDOC will continue to partner with state and federal agencies to support ICE operations as needed to uphold the law and increase public safety."

Sumner County Mayor John Isbell expressed his approval for the Sumner County Sheriff's Office partnering with ICE in a statement, saying, in part, "Public safety is our highest priority, and this partnership between our Sheriff's Office and federal authorities enhances our ability to protect our communities. The 287(g) Warrant Service Officer program provides our law enforcement with additional tools to ensure that individuals who have violated both our immigration laws and local criminal laws are properly identified and processed."

The program only applies to people already in custody. It does not authorize deputies to carry out immigration enforcement in the community.

"You have larger allegations or more common allegations of the misuse of authority, excessive use of force, and other kinds of alleged misconduct that often leads to very expensive payouts down the line," Perez argued.

A group that is organizing a protest against ICE on Saturday, May 17 told News 2 that this partnership not only breaks trust between community members and law enforcement, but it tears families apart.

"I think they're overconfident that this can be the place where they can bring Trump's vision of a right-wing, low-wage, immigrant-free utopia to bear," Goodell expressed.

"When you deputize local law enforcement, you're injuring that community identity, those values that we all care about," Perez concluded.

News 2 reached out to the involved counties. By the time this article was published, they either said they were unavailable for comment or had yet to respond.

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/tennessee-department-of-corrections-partnership-with-ice-is-pending/