EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — El Paso County Sheriff Oscar Ugarte said that a controversial state law mandates that his agency cooperate with federal immigration officials, but his focus remains on fighting local crime and keeping the community safe.

The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office held a town hall meeting to discuss public safety, community policing and the implementation of Texas Senate Bill 8.

The town hall meeting was held on Saturday, Jan. 17, at the Socorro Ramirez Community Center, located at 106 Payton Rd. The Border Network for Human Rights co-hosted the event.

As KTSM previously reported, SB 8 mandates that every sheriff’s office in Texas counties with a population over 100,000 enter into a 287-G agreement with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Under the agreement, trained local officers are allowed to carry out certain federal immigration functions.

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Out of the three options given for the agreement, Ugarte said they will move forward with the Warrant Service Officer option: limits participation to serving administrative warrants or detainers on individuals already booked into the county jail.

This means that all warrant checks are done by federal officers, rather than local staff, to see if a detainer or immigration warrant exists for someone booked into the county jail. The bill officially went into effect this year on Jan. 1.

“This is not an option. This is not something that I wanted to do. But the Sheriff’s Office needs to do it because it’s a state law,” Ugarte said.

Ugarte spotlights the current political atmosphere, with ICE raids occurring in El Paso and across the nation, and emphasizes the importance of transparency.

“It’s very important because there’s a lot of confusion, there’s a lot of fear in our community because of what’s going on across the nation with federal agencies. So us, as local officials, it’s important to be transparent and talk to the community and have these forums if they have any questions so they can hear it directly from the Sheriff’s Office on what we are doing,” Ugarte said.

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Ugarte also notes that, although the Sheriff’s Office is partnering with federal agencies, the priority of his office will remain focusing on crimes affecting the community.

“We work in collaboration with other agencies, but I want to remind the community that the focus of the Sheriff’s Office is dealing with crimes and issues that affect our community. That is the priority of the Sheriff’s Office,” he said.

He asks that if residents see ICE agents out in El Paso County, to not interfere with the investigations, including blocking roadways, assaulting the agents or damaging any property.

“If you do not agree with ICE and if you want to protest, you have a right to protest, but you need to protest from a distance. Keep your distance from the federal officers so they can do their job and do not interfere with any of their investigations,” Ugarte said.

Samantha Singleton, the policy director for the Border Network for Human Rights, said the topic most talked about was concerns about ICE and DHS raids that have been happening in El Paso.

US citizens urged to carry their ‘papers’ amid ICE raids

“Outside of the 287-G agreements, the community is really concerned about Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s raids that are taking place, about Homeland Security investigation raids that are being taken place, that there is no checks and balance when it comes to the federal organizations, that they are not identifying themselves, to community members that are coming in mass and they wanted to know if there was something that they should do or could do as community members to respond to these outgoing enforcement tactics that are taking place,” Singleton said.

She said that the Sheriff’s Office can assist in situations by confirming if the people investigating are federal agents. Once they have identified that they are agents, the Sheriff’s Office has to back off, as they do not have power over them.

“I believe the community should know that there’s always a way to get involved. So we ask that if you have questions, utilize our organization to be a resource. There are some tools that we have that we can help the community with. Most importantly, we want the community to know that we are here and we are here to assist and that we are each other’s keeper. And so we want you all to reach out to us if there are things that is needed from you,” Singleton said.

For more information or resources, you can visit the Border Network for Human Rights’ website.

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