Arkansas State Troopers Will be Compelled to Double as ICE Agents Under New Program

As the Trump administration ramps up deportations nationwide, a new Arkansas law requires law enforcement agencies across the state to aid federal immigration authorities. The law, which went into effect Tuesday, requires sheriffs to apply to a program with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that trains and certifies officers to serve immigration warrants on undocumented people already being held in county jails for other reasons.

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But some are signing up for a different type of partnership with ICE that allows cops to stop people on the street, question them about their immigration status and potentially arrest them for deportation proceedings.

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Non-criminal ICE arrests in Arkansas have risen by 176% this year (for "offenses" like "driving while looking like an immigrant.") Missouri, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Florida have recently signed task force agreements.

And some local police departments in Arkansas are joining in with the state troopers.

This action will exacerbate the racial profiling "reign of terror" that will make people afraid to leave their homes. This isn't what I want my community to become.