(LEX 18) — As the Trump Administration's focus on deportations escalates, Kentucky is playing a significant role in the aftermath of immigrant arrests.
On Wednesday alone, 18 individuals were booked at the Laurel County Correctional Facility following arrests by Homeland Security on immigration charges.
To understand Kentucky's involvement in these enforcement actions, LEX 18 sat down with Judah Schept, a professor of criminal justice at Eastern Kentucky University who specializes in prison studies.
Schept noted that while headlines may focus on places like Los Angeles and New York City, immigration enforcement activities have reached the Bluegrass. He pointed out that some Kentucky correctional facilities have entered agreements with federal agencies to assist with these operations.
“It seems to me that the jails are serving as interim custody facilities as people move through ICE,” explained Schept, “Those agencies will pay those counties per diem, for every person incarcerated there under their jurisdiction, which brings in revenue for those counties.”
Schept raised concerns about the incentive for local detention facilities to get on board with immigration enforcement operations.
“I don’t know that you get these kinds of large raids without having the jail and potentially prison capacity in which to detain people.”
It's not only local jails getting involved. Schept mentioned the 287(g) program, which allows local law enforcement to perform specific immigration functions under ICE’s direction. Currently, over a dozen agencies in Kentucky have entered 287(g) agreements with ICE, leading to heightened fear among immigrants.
Heather Hadi, an immigration attorney, shared her experience with the panic within immigrant communities. “It has been a lot of frantic calls,” she said, emphasizing the confusion and fear caused by the escalation of immigration enforcement tactics.
Hadi described the moment as a vilification of an entire demographic, “At first it started as immigrants who are criminals, now it’s immigrants who are here undocumented, and that’s not a crime, it’s a civil violation,” she said.
Within the system, Hadi believes immigrants are easily lost in the mix as they move from facility to facility.
If this happens to a loved one, Hadi advises families to immediately contact an attorney or non profit specialized in immigrant advocacy. The first step is determining if the person who has been detained is eligible for bond.
From there, Hadi recommends filing a motion for a bond in order to be heard by a judge. If granted, work can begin on the removal case.
“If you are an individual that is undocumented and your family or friend has been detained by immigration, you should not go physically to try to bond them out or visit with them or check on their case,” said Hadi. “That’s something you can do over the phone or by speaking to an attorney.”
As immigration enforcement operations escalate, Hadi shared a final sentiment,“We are really seeing something that is just awful, and you would never think in modern-day America we are having people afraid to leave their house to go grocery shopping.”
