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Dear Casper,

I have been dismayed in the last several weeks seeing the influx of immigration holds at the Natrona County jail. As it turns out, Natrona County has agreed to accept overflow detainees from the ICE facility in Aurora, Colorado, which has filled its 15,000-bed capacity and must now transfer people in custody to other facilities — including our local jail. Between July 18 and July 21, 45 of 70 publicly logged arrests in our county were immigration hold transfers.

This is deeply concerning for a number of reasons. First, Wyoming does not have an immigration court, so presumably these detainees are being held in a completely different state from their attorneys, if they even have representation. Many lawyers working these types of cases are doing so pro bono, so traveling across state lines to visit defendants may not be possible. The lack of translators in Wyoming is also a major issue. If any of the detainees require translation, it may be difficult to come by.

We have already seen how the current administration has disregarded due process, deporting people — sometimes mistakenly — without having received a fair trial. Those in power campaigned on a promise to target “the worst of the worst” criminal migrants. Yet, the most recent ICE detention statistics released as of Aug. 1 show that more than 46% of those currently detained by ICE and CBP nationwide have no pending or convicted criminal charges. In fact, numerous studies point to statistics revealing that both unauthorized and documented migrants commit crimes at lower rates than U.S. born citizens.

In its zeal to meet detention quotas, ICE has mistakenly imprisoned minors at Alligator Alcatraz and is staking outside of immigration courts to abduct people there for asylum hearings. The administration has removed temporary protected status for nearly half a million Haitian immigrants who are here legally, and it recently encouraged DACA recipients — many of whom have lived their entire lives in the U.S. with protected status — to self-deport. These are not the actions of a conscientious law enforcement agency out to make our country safer. This is an intimidation tactic that is sweeping up working taxpayers and folks tied up in the bureaucracy of our rickety immigration system, all while messaging a focus on removing “dangerous criminals.” 

And now, Gov. Mark Gordon wants to increase Wyoming’s involvement in this indiscriminate crackdown. In recent weeks, he has authorized Wyoming Highway Patrol to aid in federal immigration enforcement, and he has now agreed to allow DHS to use the Wyoming National Guard in a “to be determined” capacity. Reportedly, the federal government will cover the cost of National Guard deployments across the country — meaning our tax dollars, presumably in addition to those dispersed in the tripling of ICE’s annual budget, will be spent in deploying the Guard to our own cities. The cost to public safety of the Highway Patrol being utilized in immigration enforcement is also unknown, but we should be exceedingly wary of the opportunity for racial profiling. More worryingly, all of this costly ramp up in enforcement action is being undertaken without input from constituents like you and me.

On the heels of the annual pilgrimage to Heart Mountain, I think it is incumbent upon us in Wyoming to remember the history of wrongful detention in our state. We should be demanding transparency from our government. We should be wary of the sharp increase in the ICE budget granted by the OBBB. We should be increasingly vigilant to ensure our neighbors have their constitutional rights protected.

Writing in solidarity for a better Wyoming future,

Britt Boril
Casper

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