The police department in the small Indiana town of Stinesville could lose funding over its agreement to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — and now a U.S. senator is stepping in to ensure town officials don’t scrap the plan.
The Stinesville Police Department signed the agreement with federal immigration authorities in February to support what is known as ICE’s “Task Force Model” under its 287(g) program, which gives local police officers the ability to arrest illegal immigrants and work with ICE to transfer them to federal custody.
The Monroe County Board of Commissioners adopted a resolution in September questioning the police department’s authority to broker such an agreement without the town board’s approval. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita responded with a 6-page letter that said the agreement did not require the board’s rubber stamp.
Rokita also warned that any local interference with such an agreement could result in fines of up to $10,000 for each violation.
On Thursday, Senator Jim Banks (R-IN) stepped in to send a letter first obtained by The Daily Wire to the Stinesville town board, which oversees a population of roughly 200 residents, and the county board of commissioners, expressing concerns about threats to withhold funding.
Banks wrote that he has “been disappointed” by the defunding effort, saying it could pose a risk to public safety.
“The agreement includes funding and training that will strengthen the Department. As Attorney General Todd Rokita noted, no legal authorities prevent the Department from entering the agreement, or require it to obtain approval from the local board before doing so. To the contrary, local entities violate state law by restricting local law enforcement from working with federal authorities to enforce immigration law,” Banks wrote in his letter.
“Depriving the Department of funding to which it is lawfully entitled jeopardizes the safety of Stinesville and its residents. I encourage the Council to vote in support of the Department’s agreement and to put the well-being of the American people first,” he added.
More than 45 state and local law enforcement agencies throughout Indiana have agreements with ICE, Rokita wrote in his letter.
Last month, Town Attorney Darla Brown gave the board two options, one that would ratify the ICE agreement and another to terminate it altogether, according to The B Square Bulletin. The board’s president, Scott McGlocklin, postponed any action until November, given only two of the board’s three members were present.
Then-deputy police chief Shane Pittman signed the agreement with ICE and said it would bring more funding to the department, whose officers have sometimes had to purchase their own equipment, The B Square Bulletin reported.
The town had already received $122,500 in federal funding from the agreement with ICE, but the money has yet to be spent, McGlocklin said.
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