Why Should Delaware Care?
As federal deportation efforts have increased in recent months, state and federal officials have increasingly been at odds over whether local law enforcement should assist those efforts. So-called 287(g) agreements could increase deportations in Delaware, but state officials sought to shield non-violent, undocumented immigrants.
Gov. Matt Meyer outlawed official partnerships between federal immigration agents and local police departments by signing a bill Monday that was passed by the Delaware legislature, further strengthening his resistance to the Trump administration’s deportation efforts.
In doing so, Delaware became the seventh state– all six other states are also led by Democrats – to ban the agreements through state policy.
Meyer’s signing of House Bill 182 — which bars the partnerships known as 287(g) agreements between Delaware police departments and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — concludes a months-long legislative journey that was punctuated by revelations of ICE’s efforts to try and partner with local police.
The 287(g) program essentially deputizes local police officers to act as extensions of ICE, primarily through the use of local jails, where undocumented immigrants in custody can be processed into ICE custody for deportation, or through a “task force model,” where officers are trained to enforce immigration laws in their daily routines.
California, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington all have similar state laws in place to prohibit 287(g) agreements. Still, ICE has active partnerships in 40 other states, according to the agency’s website.
The vast majority of its partnerships are in red states, with the handful of blue state partners being typically small municipal or county departments. Only one statewide agency in a blue state remains a 287(g) partner, according to ICE: the Massachusetts Department of Corrections.
Meyer also signed three other bills into law that focus on regulating who can make immigration arrests in the state, including legislation to impose stiffer consequences on people who impersonate federal agents.
At a Monday bill signing ceremony, the governor said he wasn’t fearful of retribution from the Trump administration for passing this slate of laws centered around protecting Delaware’s immigrants. In May, the Trump administration placed Delaware on a now-defunct list of so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions that were at risk of losing federal funding.
“In some ways, it’s harder to do these things now, but that’s why it’s even more important that we stand up and do things like this,” the governor said.
The enactment of the four immigration-related bills, which included House Bills 142, 152, 153 and 182 that were all sponsored by Rep. Mara Gorman (D-Newark), comes amid a nationwide immigration crackdown that was promised in President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
In Delaware, the number of federal prosecutions and administrative ICE arrests of undocumented immigrants has skyrocketed since Trump retook office in January.
“Although I am Delawarean, born and raised, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t fearful,” said Katy Castillo, an immigration advocate based in Sussex County, in regard to the federal enforcement actions seen in Delaware thus far this year.
What do the new laws do?
Meyer enacted two new laws — House Bills 142 and 153 — that both restrict who can make arrests in Delaware.
House Bill 142 eliminates the power of a private person to arrest someone who is accused of a felony in another state without a warrant. The law is focused on impeding citizen’s arrests during a time of increased uncertainty around immigration enforcement, with ICE agents regularly wearing masks and plain clothes during arrests, making it more difficult to discern who is a law enforcement officer and who is not.
Although I am Delawarean, born and raised, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t fearful.
katy castillo
House Bill 153 bars any person, who does not have explicit statutory authority, to make an arrest or detention in Delaware. The law repeals the power of private detectives to arrest or detain people in the state.
Finally, House Bill 152 cracks down on the consequences for impersonating a federal officer, police officer, firefighter, emergency medical technician, paramedic, or fire officer.
That bill was introduced in part due to the assassination of a state lawmaker in Minnesota, where the assailant was dressed as a police officer.
But then, two days before the bill passed the General Assembly in June, two masked men wearing vests labeled “ICE” allegedly robbed a man at gunpoint in Milton, according to Delaware State Police. There’s been a rise in similar impersonation incidents nationwide since the beginning of the year.
“We have to stand up to what is happening,” Gorman said. “We have to say, ‘Not here, not in Delaware, not on our streets, not in our communities.’”
ICE partnership law marked by revelations
As HB 182 progressed in the General Assembly, Spotlight Delaware uncovered that ICE has solicited at least six local police departments to partner in enforcing federal immigration law under the agency’s 287(g) program.
The Camden Police Department remains the only police agency to enter into an agreement with ICE thus far.
But the small municipal Kent County police department only stayed in the partnership for a week before they decided to “pause” their agreement out of fear of the bill becoming law, according to emails obtained by Spotlight Delaware through an open records request.
Camden Police Chief Marcus Whitney told an ICE officer in a May email that he didn’t want their agreement to push legislators to pass a law barring such agreements statewide. Gorman introduced the bill about two weeks after Camden police withdrew from their formal partnership with ICE.
“We have seen that municipalities, if left to their own decisions, will take active steps to cooperate with ICE,” said Rony Baltazar-Lopez, vice chair of the Delaware Hispanic Commission, during the bill signing event.
The new law doesn’t prevent Delaware law enforcement agencies from working with the federal government on other public safety matters, according to the bill’s text.