On Friday, Madison County Sheriff Kevin Turner spoke to 1819 News about immigration enforcement in Alabama's second-largest county and the 287(g) program, which allows a partnership between ICE and local law enforcement agencies to better identify and remove illegal aliens.
Turner said his agency hasn't been invited to join the initiative, but he did say he honors the detainers.
"We've never been offered the 287(g) program or anything like that to sign, " Turner stated. "What I do is I honor the detainers, if someone's in our jail and they're illegal and they've got an ICE hold on, we work with federal law enforcement."
The sheriff noted that ICE has not yet conducted a large-scale "round up" of illegal aliens in Madison County.
"I know they've done roundups in Marshall County, DeKalb, in places like that, but we've never seen them here, to be honest with you," Turner said. "But when [deputies] make arrests, and they get them to the jail, or if anybody else lands in the jail that's illegal, we'll call them [federal authorities] and honor that. They'll just come pick them up immediately. But there's been no roundups. So I just want to clarify that with you, that no one's ever offered us to sign anything."
Turner will continue honoring detainers and working with federal authorities to remove illegal aliens from the county promptly.
"But I'm going to cooperate with law enforcement because that's who I am," he concluded.
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