The Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office is working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold undocumented detainees for longer periods of time.
The sheriff’s office participates in ICE’s 287(g) program, which allows them to hold David L. Moss Detention Center detainees for 72 hours.
Sheriff Vic Regalado said Monday that the jail has seen “a significant increase” in the number of detainees with ICE holds in recent months.
On April 29, ICE claimed it arrested more than 66,000 undocumented people in President Donald Trump’s first 100 days as his administration seeks an aggressive second-term immigration policy.
Assistant Jail Administrator Marcus Berry said he last counted on April 28 230 ICE detainees in the jail.
Berry said the new contract would permit the sheriff’s office to hold up to 300 such detainees for an “indefinite” amount of time similar to a 2016-2018 agreement allowing ICE holds until detainees are deported or have a court date.
“It could be 72 hours like they’re doing right now, or it could go past the 72 hours,” Berry told the Tulsa County Criminal Justice Sales Tax Overview Committee on April 28.
Berry explained the influx of ICE detainees aren’t locals. Instead, they’re coming from Dallas and Oklahoma City. In Dallas particularly, “they run out of room” and move people to Tulsa for 72 hours, he said.
“The Tulsa numbers are just the normal. If I’m an undocumented person and I get a DUI, or if I’m speeding and I get stopped, or I don’t have a driver’s license — whatever the reason that puts them in jail (and) we find out they’re undocumented, that number has been the same,” Berry said.
The spike has led to overtime for jail employees, Berry said. Each detainee needs pictures, classification and questioning, which could take several hours.
Regalado said a crunch is especially noticeable when ICE brings more detainees than initially communicated.
“We’ve talked to them about adjusting,” Regalado said about his jail staff. “(Overtime has) gotten better.”
Regalado and Berry said the new contract could also include an increased reimbursement rate. The county is currently reimbursed at $75 per detainee per day.
The sheriff’s move for a new contract comes as the Trump administration has faced criticism for hastily deporting more than 200 men to a mega-prison in El Salvador. One of those men, 24-year-old Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was shielded from deportation during the president’s first term.
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously decided the administration needed to return Abrego Garcia to the states but the Maryland man remains in foreign custody.
Regalado said he hasn’t seen any ICE detainees who’ve come through his jail denied due process.
“That’s certainly the federal government’s issue, to ensure that those people are receiving that,” Regalado said.
