Barnstable County Sheriff James Cummings.
BOURNE – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is expected to make a decision next week on whether it will allow the Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office to check the immigration status of prisoners.
Sheriff James Cummings applied for the ICE 287(g) program earlier this year after being approached by federal officials in February.
The program would allow the sheriff’s office to check the status of any person who comes to the County Correctional Facility after committing a crime.
“It will give us the ability to begin the process with some databases and equipment that ICE is going to provide us,” Cummings said.
“We’ll be able to check out the immigration status and also begin the process for necessary hearings for deportation.”
Cummings said if individuals who are in the country illegally commit crimes and deserves to have a detainer lodged against them the program will speed up the process.
Cummings reaffirms that, if chosen by the program’s advisory board, deputies would not be checking the immigration status of individuals who have not committed a crime.
“The emphasis is it’s on people who have committed a crime while they were here in Barnstable County illegally,” Cummings said.
The program’s advisory board will meet Tuesday to discuss the applications from law enforcement agencies.
Cummings said four officers from his office will be sent for ICE training which lasts about a month.
“ICE will install the necessary IT equipment so that we can get into their databases and then there’s a couple of months of hands-on work before they will be adept at the system and be able to do the necessary paper searches on our own,” he said.
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