Sen. Jim Banks Steps In After an Indiana County Moves to Cut Funds Over a Small-Town Police Department's ICE Agreement, the Daily Wire Reports
The Daily Wire says Stinesville's police signed a 287(g) agreement in February. County commissioners questioned it, Attorney General Rokita warned of $10,000 fines per violation, and Banks wrote to the town board. A vote is due this month.
A town of about 200 people in Indiana has become a test of who decides whether local police work with ICE, the Daily Wire reports in an exclusive.
The agreement. The Stinesville Police Department signed a 287(g) agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in February, under ICE's "Task Force Model." The program lets local officers arrest illegal immigrants and hand them to federal custody. Then-deputy chief Shane Pittman signed it and said it would bring in money for a department whose officers have sometimes bought their own equipment, according to the B Square Bulletin, which the Daily Wire cites.
The dispute. In September the Monroe County Board of Commissioners adopted a resolution questioning whether the police department could make the agreement without the town board's approval. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita answered with a six-page letter saying it did not need the board's sign-off, and warned that local interference could bring fines of up to $10,000 per violation. The Daily Wire says more than 45 state and local agencies in Indiana have ICE agreements.
The senator. On Thursday Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., sent a letter, first obtained by the Daily Wire, to the Stinesville town board and the county commissioners. He wrote that he has "been disappointed" by the move to defund and that "local entities violate state law by restricting local law enforcement from working with federal authorities to enforce immigration law." He urged the council to vote for the agreement and "put the well-being of the American people first."
The money and the vote. The town has already received $122,500 in federal funding under the agreement, but it has not been spent, board president Scott McGlocklin said. Last month Town Attorney Darla Brown gave the board two options, ratify the agreement or end it. McGlocklin delayed action until November because only two of three members were present.
Why it matters here. The fight is about authority as much as immigration: a police agency, a county and a state attorney general each claim the say. It also shows federal lawmakers weighing in on a very small local vote.
What we could not check. We read the Daily Wire's text, which cut off after the $122,500 detail in our copy, so we may have missed later paragraphs. We did not see Banks's letter, Rokita's letter or the county resolution, and the report does not quote any county commissioner. We could not confirm the date of the town board vote.