Idaho to allocate $300k to transport inmates to ICE detention centers

COEUR d’ALENE — Idaho Gov. Brad Little announced Wednesday that the state will spend up to $300,000 to pay for Idaho State Police to transport people who have been convicted of crimes and don’t have legal authorization to be in the United States to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers for deportation.

The Idaho State Board of Examiners voted this week to approve the funding, which will come from the governor’s emergency fund. 

The move comes nearly two weeks after Little announced a new partnership between Idaho State Police and ICE. Idaho will participate in the jail enforcement model under the 287(g) program, which allows ICE to delegate the authority to perform specified immigration officer functions to state and local law enforcement authorities. 

The jail enforcement model “is designed to identify and process removable aliens with criminal or pending criminal charges who are arrested by state or local law enforcement agencies,” according to ICE. 

ACLU of Idaho officials spoke out against the partnership between Idaho State Police and ICE soon after it was announced. 

“ICE and local law enforcement partnerships deteriorate trust, harm families and can lead to constitutional violations,” ACLU of Idaho Executive Director Leo Morales said in a written statement June 5. “This new partnership will intimidate and cause real trauma to our immigrant community. Immigrants make our communities stronger and they deserve to be treated with dignity. Nothing will ever change the fact that immigrants belong in Idaho.” 

In the Kootenai County jail, the number of border patrol holds has soared this year, though public records indicate the individuals who have been booked into the county jail have not been convicted of any crime. Rather, they are being held due to their immigration status. 

In years past, as few as two or three people a month were jailed in Kootenai County due to their immigration status. As ICE has expanded its enforcement priorities in response to the Trump administration’s orders, the local arrest numbers have increased. 

A total of 135 people were booked into the Kootenai County jail on a border patrol or immigration hold between Jan. 1 and May 20, according to public records obtained by The Press. 

While 44 of those people were contacted by law enforcement and arrested in North Idaho, mostly in Kootenai and Shoshone counties, the remaining two-thirds were arrested out of state and transported to Kootenai County for holding. 

Most of the out-of-state arrests during that period occurred in Montana, records show, totaling 50, while 33 arrests occurred in Washington, mostly in Spokane or Spokane Valley. Booking sheets don’t indicate where the remaining handful of people were arrested. 

The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office previously reported that the vast majority of local border patrol holds, as many as 80%, involve people who were detained by federal authorities in Washington or Montana and temporarily handed off to KCSO. 

These individuals are typically held in the Kootenai County jail for a day or so before they’re transferred to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, a privately run immigration prison operated on behalf of ICE. 

The sheriff’s office receives $112 per day to hold a federal prisoner, according to a contract with the U.S. Marshals Service.