ICE signs off on agreements with Lancaster County Sheriff, Northwest Regional Police

• By Tom Lisi/ LNP | LancasterOnline

U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement has approved agreements with the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office and Northwest Regional Police Department that allow the two local agencies to arrest and detain people on behalf of the federal agency.

An update to ICE’s website Tuesday showed the federal agency had approved the agreements last week.

Lancaster County Sheriff Chris Leppler and Northwest Regional Police Chief Mark Mayberry have not spoken publicly about the agreements and did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

Doug Hottenstein, chairman of the police commission that oversees Northwest Regional, did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday. The commission is made up of elected officials from West Donegal and Mount Joy townships, which comprise the department’s service area.

The approved agreements make the two Lancaster County law enforcement agencies part of a push by the Trump administration to enlist local authorities to assist in federal immigration enforcement.

Since January, ICE has approved at least 371 agreements with local and state authorities, according to the agency’s website, compared to 45 in 2019 and 90 in 2020.

The county sheriff and Northwest Regional police are now part of the “task force model,” one of three arrangements ICE uses with local agencies.

The task force model was previously shuttered by former President Barack Obama’s administration in 2012 after the program drew concerns about civil rights violations. Studies of the model showed it often led to racial profiling, most notably during traffic stops.

The other two ICE models allow local authorities to inquire about a person’s immigration status when an individual is in jail.

The task force model is broader, allowing local authorities to inquire about immigration status during the course of their duties.

Immigrant advocates and civil rights organizations have panned the task force model, arguing that local law enforcement doesn’t have adequate training on immigration law and the program erodes trust between immigration authorities and local law enforcement.