The federal government wants to make Columbus a hub for training police officers around the state in several areas, including enforcing immigration.
Steven Jackson, a law enforcement coordinator for the Department of Justice, visited Columbus Police Department on Wednesday to congratulate the department on reducing crime in the city.
He also filled the department in on a training opportunity intended to prepare officers for dealing with different situations dealing with both violent crime and immigration enforcement.
“DOJ is partnering with (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in order to facilitate training in this jurisdiction to give y’all the procedures, the tactics and techniques they use to successfully conduct investigations with reference to some illegal person or suspected illegal person in this jurisdiction,” Jackson told a room of CPD officers during a meeting streamed on Facebook.
Jackson said the decision is driven by the Trump administration’s focus on immigration enforcement. The president signed an executive order in January called Protecting The American People Against Invasion that encourages federal partnerships with local agencies to aid the administration with its detention and deportation efforts.
“The No. 1 and No. 2 priorities of this administration is immigration enforcement and violent crimes,” Jackson said. “We’re attacking one at a time, so right now, we’re bringing training to the Golden Triangle by way of Columbus for immigration enforcement.”
While Jackson said the training in Columbus will include ERO, or enforcement and removal operations, training in dealing with undocumented immigrants, Chief Joseph Daughtry said it will also include training for leadership and for dealing with violent crime and convicted felons.
It will be a great opportunity for CPD and other agencies who attend the training, Daughtry said.
“Basically, it’s an enforcement training, so that we are all on the same page” he said. “… In the event something happens, our guys (will be) trained on what to look for, what’s the process to make sure we’re doing it correctly and doing it fairly. And also, so we don’t violate constitutional rights.”
Daughtry said he believes the training will focus mostly on communication.
“The benefit is we’re going to allow smaller agencies around us who can’t afford to go to Jackson, who can’t afford to go to Biloxi, to come to us and we’re able to train them,” he said. “Becoming more of a training hub, so that when things happen, we’re all on the same page because we’re dealing with the same type of criminal elements.”
When it comes to the ERO training, the goal isn’t to turn police officers into immigration enforcement officers, Daughtry emphasized.
“No sheriff or chief is coming in and … kicking down doors and taking folks from their families,” he said. “That’s not what it’s for. This training is more to educate officers on ‘Who do you call? What do you do?’ So that we’re doing the right thing. … It’s not so we can start going and taking people and deporting them.”
Currently, CPD doesn’t do any immigration enforcement, Daughtry said.
“If (ICE) needs us, they call us,” he said. “But no, we don’t have a problem here like other places do. .. We haven’t had any crimes dealing with undocumented individuals either.”
Officials from Starkville Police Department, Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Office and Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office told The Dispatch none of the agencies have been invited yet to the training, which is tentatively scheduled for August.
Neither LCSO nor OCSO have done any training for immigration enforcement with ICE. SPD Public Information Officer Sgt. Brandon Lovelady said some members of the department have attended various training sessions related to homeland security through federal partners.
At most, Lowndes County Sheriff Eddie Hawkins said the agency will notify ICE when an undocumented immigrant is arrested, but the decision to detain or deport is on ICE.
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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