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ICE field director explains enforcement operations to Kentucky lawmakers

FILE - The Kentucky Capitol is seen, Jan. 14, 2020, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, File)
Timothy D. Easley/AP
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FR43398 AP
FILE - The Kentucky Capitol is seen, Jan. 14, 2020, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, File)

Kentucky lawmakers on the Interim State Government Committee recently heard from an ICE officer who oversees immigration enforcement operations in Kentucky and southern Indiana.

Jeremy Bacon, an assistant field office director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, said officers often find noncitizens in local jails.

“Most of the time here in Kentucky, the folks that we are attempting to target, like I said earlier, are all people that have been arrested within our local systems already as an active public safety threat,” said Bacon.

Bacon explained ICE finds noncitizens in local jails by communicating with law enforcement and screening jail populations. He said this process also flags foreign-born people who have citizenship. These people can be removed from the country depending on the severity of their offenses.

Bacon said noncitizens who are flagged by ICE retain the right to appear in front of an immigration judge. He said if a person who has previously been deported is taken into custody, they do not have the right to appear in court and are quickly deported again.

One lawmaker asked Bacon how ICE decides which noncitizens are detained and which are allowed to live in America for up to several years before they appear before an immigration judge. Bacon said there are several things the agency takes into consideration when making these decisions.

“You’re looking at public safety, national security. So, if there’s not any major issues there, then you’re moving on down the line. And sometimes, like I said, the bed space for immigration specifically is a hurdle that is in some ways insurmountable,” said Bacon.

Bacon said ICE detention centers are administrative rather than punitive, and noncitizens are only held in the facilities until their removal process has been completed. Due to a lack of bed space in detention centers, ICE sometimes uses GPS tracking to locate immigrants and allows them to live in local communities until they can be removed from the country.

Bacon’s overall message to the committee was that immigration enforcement is complicated, and every situation is handled on a case-by-case basis.