The Dallas City Council will not reconsider joining the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement 287(g) program following Thursday's unanimous joint committee vote to postpone the item indefinitely.
The vote was in response to a request from Mayor Eric Johnson — who was not present at the meeting — for discussion and a recommendation by the Public Safety and Government Efficiency committees regarding the program.
The ICE 287(g) task force program uses local and state police officers for immigration enforcement. ICE recently offered the Dallas Police Department $25 million to join the program, but Police Chief Daniel Comeaux turned it down.
His decision raised questions from Council Member Cara Mendelsohn regarding whether that decision should have been brought to the city council beforehand.
City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert oversees the day to day operations of Dallas and Comeaux ultimately answers to her.
She said she knew about the offer and supported Comeaux's decision.
"The chief did not make this decision without my awareness and approval," Tolbert said. "So, based on our chain of command, it is something I knew about, I supported and I agreed.
Although Johnson was absent, 13 out of the 14 city council members attended the joint meeting with Council Member Chad West not present. All members of both committees were present.
Council Member Maxie Johnson, who chaired the joint committee, was among several council members who repeated residents' concerns that partnering DPD with ICE would damage community trust.
"We're not gonna support racism, we're not gonna take money cause all money ain't good money, and we're gonna support our chief of police," Johnson said.
Out of the 74 people signed up to speak, 58 were Dallas residents. The majority were in opposition, with at least seven people in support of joining the program.
Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price also was present at the meeting and spoke against Dallas joining 287(g). He said ICE immigration detainments have increased in recent years and the county jail was close to reaching capacity.
"This can have a definite impact on what's going on in the Dallas County Jail," Price said.
A group of about 30 people gathered in front of City Hall ahead of the meeting in opposition to 287(g). Azael Alvarez with El Movimento DFW was among organizers. If it has passed, he told KERA that it was hard to feel safe with ICE involved.
"We're built on immigrants and it's important that we're here to fight back and let all the council members know that we're here to say no," Alvarez said.
Speakers from other organizations echoed Alvarez's concerns. Stephanie Drenka with the Dallas Asian American Historical Society said many Asian immigrants come from places where law enforcement meant danger, not protection.
"For them, Dallas represented safety, dignity, and a chance to start over," Drenka said. "People who once fled state violence are now looking over their shoulders again in the very country that promised them refuge."
Comeaux told council members during the meeting that, when he was hired, he was told one of the most important issues to address was response times. Response times have been under scrutiny this year. An NBC 5 investigation found that Priority 1 response times took almost twice the time of the city's eight-minute goal in some neighborhoods.
"So why would I even think about giving up so many officers that would not be able to respond to everyone in Dallas when the phone call came in, a 9-1-1 call needing help?" Comeaux said.
Dallas police recruits go through 10 months of training. Although he said that's longer than other departments, Comeaux says he has seen the payoff in the quality of officers serving the city.
Two representatives with ICE, who identified themselves as officers Francis and Ivy, were present at the meeting. They said that police officers participating with ICE , under 287(g) go through 40 hours of training on a computer to conduct immigration enforcement within their city's police departments.
The ICE representatives added that the money offered is a reimbursement and does not pay for the entire salary and benefits of an officer. It only pays for the amount of time an officer would be conducting immigration enforcement.
The two ICE officers left before the meeting was over.
Under 287(g) a trained officer would conduct their day-to-day DPD tasks. But if they saw probable cause that someone was undocumented, such as during a traffic stop, they could conduct immigration enforcement.
But detaining, transporting, and booking a suspected undocumented person could take DPD officers off the street at a time when police numbers are lower than the established goal of 4,000.
Mendelsohn said it would take officers off the street when the city needs all its officers present.
"It would take them off the streets in the often repeated traffic stop scenario, because as soon as they would call ICE, they would then wait and then they would be responsible for transporting and documentation," Mendelsohn said. "That literally means they would be off the streets."
Following the joint committee's vote, the item will not go in front of city council.
Council Member Paul Ridley, along with several other council members, said he appreciated having a public discussion over the program, but felt like the push to consider the program was "purely political." He said immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility.
"I will not support diverting local resources toward a political or partisan agenda," Ridley said. "I applaud Chief Comeaux for the work he has already done here in Dallas, and will continue to support him as he continues to improve public safety."
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