A Second Dallas Law Enforcement Office Has Said No To ICE Partnership Invitation

Representatives from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) received a chilly reception at City Hall last week, when two committees met to discuss the role Dallas’ police force was asked to play in federal immigration enforcement through the 287(g) program. 

A few questions were answered, while many more remained unanswered. Several council members had the flames of their frustrations fanned by two ICE agents who identified themselves as Officers Francis and Ivey. The duo hemmed and hawed around questions such as “do immigrants have constitutional rights,” and repeatedly contradicted themselves and Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux, whose account of the partnership proposal didn’t really align with ICE’s descriptions. 

And now another Dallas official is disagreeing with the information that ICE shared at the lectern. Officer Francis, assistant director of ICE’s Dallas field office, told the council he’d sent an email to the Dallas City Marshal’s Office some months ago asking that ICE agents be allowed to access the city’s detention center. The Dallas County jail has been a phenomenal cooperator in handing over undocumented detainees, he emphasized; the Marshal’s, less so. (The Dallas Marshal is a separate entity from DPD and the county sheriffs.)

“Essentially, my intention was to identify [undocumented] people in jails,” said Francis. “I was told that my request had been forwarded to the city manager, and I followed up with an additional request, but I never received a response.” 

Francis didn’t go so far as to suggest that his request is something City Manager Kimberly Tolbert is still considering, but to avoid any confusion, Dominique Artis, Dallas’ chief of public safety, released a memorandum on Friday making it clear that the Marshal’s Office won’t be working with ICE. 

Dallas City Marshal’s officials confirmed to Artis that they heard from an ICE representative six months ago about a potential agreement. Interim Chief Clifton Knight stated that the federal agency requested an ICE officer be posted at the city detention center during each shift. Artis’ memo notes that the department is committed to “promoting unbiased policing” and “public confidence and trust,” something that would be eroded if ICE officers were to be stationed there. 

“[Knight] indicated that the Marshal’s Office conveyed that this request would not be approved, and there have been no subsequent discussions on the matter since then,” Artis wrote. “Additionally, Chief Knight confirmed that there has been no communication regarding any pending approval from the City Manager’s Office.”

“We do not permit personnel from outside agencies to be stationed or housed within the city detention center,” the memo adds. 

Francis suggested that the partnership request made sense because ICE is looking to find undocumented people who “come into contact with the criminal justice system.” But for the most part, individuals who land at the city detention center aren’t the hardened bad guys that the Trump administration has sworn they’re targeting. The city detention center is mainly used for people picked up on minor crimes like illegal dumping, public intoxication and city ordinance violations. 

Despite President Donald Trump’s promise to only deport “the worst of the worst,” The Texas Tribune reports that less than half of ICE arrestees under the Trump administration have had a criminal conviction on their record at the time of detainment.

As of now, it appears that ICE has found itself out of luck with two of Dallas’ three law enforcement agencies. As Francis noted, the Dallas County jail is already assisting with holding inmates who have been placed on an ICE detainer. Between February and May of this year, the jail saw a 71% increase in detainers — the request that a person being detained is of interest to the agency that allows ICE to be tipped off before their release so that agents can take that person to an immigration detention center — from the same period last year. 

That partnership isn’t likely to wane, either. While the Dallas Police Department opted out of the 287(g) program, the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, along with every other sheriff’s department serving a county of over 100,000 people, is mandated by a new state law to join the initiative. 

During Thursday’s committee meeting, Tolbert told the council that she believes it is within her jurisdiction to make decisions on city governance with the counsel of her staff. Even in cases where $25 million may or may not be on the table, the city manager said she is not required to seek approval from the council. Friday’s memo suggests that the city’s decision to ignore ICE’s city marshal courting was made in a similar manner to the rejected DPD partnership offer: decisively by those within the city manager’s sphere of oversight.

Based on Thursday’s rare unanimous vote, it isn’t likely that many at the horseshoe will mind.