While immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility administered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency has expanded their immigration jail infrastructure, surveillance programs, and enforcement agent body in part through the use of Intergovernmental Service Agreements (IGSAs) with local government agencies and by spending valuable taxpayer dollars. This forces taxpayers to bear the burden of those costs through IGSAs.
IGSAs or “bedding agreements,” are contracts between the Federal Government and state or local governments where local agencies agree to provide space in their jails/prisons for the detention of undocumented people. The detention centers are paid by the federal government for each person they hold, often without a criminal background. Without an IGSA, people can only be held at non-ICE facilities for 48 hours for issues related to immigration status. Colorado taxpayers trust that resources are invested in their own communities, rather than carrying out the Federal Government’s civil immigration detention activities. Currently only two counties, Teller and Moffat Counties, have an IGSA. In the last two years, Moffat used it for only 12 people.
CA, WA, IL, MD, NJ and OR have passed legislation to ban IGSAs for civil immigration purposes and it’s time Colorado continues to stand strong for our immigrant community.