Some North Idaho law enforcement question lawmakers’ push to intertwine their duties with ICE. Here’s why

Some North Idaho law enforcement leaders are concerned with state lawmakers attempting to intertwine their operations with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

It’s not about aligning with Republicans or Democrats, they argue – it’s about their sworn duties as local police and deputies.

The proposals, which broadly require local law enforcement to act as immigration agents, have “brought about a shocking turn within the Idaho Legislature,” argues Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler.

Those who normally oppose more federal involvement are voting “to federalize all law enforcement in Idaho,” Wheeler said.

The bill would require local police and deputies to verify someone’s nationality after any arrest. It passed in a 40-30 vote in the Idaho House Wednesday morning. The Idaho Chiefs of Police Association, the Fraternal Order of Police and the Idaho Sheriffs Association have opposed the proposals, bill sponsor Fernwood Republican Rep. Dale Hawkins acknowledged on the House floor Wednesday.

“I’m not asking for anyone to do immigration interdiction in the field. We aren’t asking for them to determine someone’s status on a traffic stop,” Hawkins said. “We are asking that we get a count of how many of those people we are arresting are not lawfully in the United States.”

Hawkins did not work with law enforcement when crafting the bill, the Idaho Capital Sun reported, but he did check with stakeholders – the stakeholders being the people in his and other lawmakers’ districts, he told lawmakers Wednesday.

The legislation making its way through the Idaho Capitol this month turned the heads of Idaho police and sheriffs, many of which already feel the pressure of working a law enforcement career.

“If someone we arrest and take to jail turns out to be in the country illegally, that isn’t for us to concern ourselves with,” said Rathdrum Police Chief Dan Haley. “When I first got here, I made it clear that a victim is a victim, and to keep that in mind. Politics aside.”

The bill would also require crime statistics about immigrants in Idaho, twice-a-year reporting of people’s immigration statuses after an arrest and the number of noncitizens who are “investigated, apprehended, detained and transferred to federal officials.”

If local departments refuse, they’re subjected to state funding being withheld, the bill says.

“There would be no way for us to verify if they were born here. Not everybody is carrying around their passport, and we are not asking everyone we investigate what their nationality is,” Haley said, adding that some of the language in the bill is vague at best. “The immigration side, that is what it is – it’s the reports that take the time, and adding the threat of taking away funding is the biggest issue.”

Currently, Haley oversees 19 sworn officers and two administrative assistants in the Rathdrum Police Department. It would take more manpower to investigate people’s immigration statuses and attempt to verify them, he said. It would also require additional training and access to federal databases.

Haley is the person who must compile and verify crime statistics monthly. On busy days, he will assist with writing warrants. Adding immigration work on top of the work Rathdrum officers already are doing is something the department doesn’t have the resources to complete, he said.

“The reporting aspect is also what would tax the small departments,” Haley added. “The reporting aspect would be cumbersome.”

Wheeler had similar concerns. Officers working the street who can cite and release someone for a smaller offense would have no way to determine someone’s immigration status during the time of contact, he said. If two officers were only working the street inside a small city at the time, “it would create an impossible situation,” he said.

Wheeler also felt concerned about towing the line of the Fifth Amendment. He wouldn’t violate someone’s right to stay silent during an arrest in an attempt to verify their nationality, he told The Spokesman-Review.

“Sheriffs enforce Idaho State statutes, not federal law,” he said. “We don’t do the duties of federal law enforcement agencies.”

Interim Coeur d’Alene Police Chief David Hagar said in an interview that enveloping federal and local duties would take time and resources away from pursuing and solving local crime. To comply with these requirements, the department would need more staff. Determining where someone is at in the immigration process and having intricate knowledge of the U.S. Immigration system would take substantial resources, he said, though the summary of the bill states there is no additional costs required.

Wheeler doesn’t believe it.

“There absolutely is a cost to each agency when they have to jump through hoops to obtain such immigration status and nationality,” Wheeler said in an email. “There is also an administrative cost for each agency to create the biannual reports and to track when and if criminal offenders are investigated, apprehended, detained and transferred to federal officials. This is an unfounded mandate by the state legislature.”

Because federal immigration violations are considered civil violations, “The nuances involved in federal immigration enforcement require extensive training to differentiate” the two, Hagar told The Spokesman-Review. Kootenai County already offers immigration and Border Patrol agents its assistance, however. Agents frequent the Kootenai County Jail and are able to verify people’s immigration statuses that way, Hagar added.

A couple of Republicans on the House floor Wednesday shared concerns over the bill, especially the language of the bill, which isn’t “clear,” Rexburg Republican Rep. Britt Raybould said.

“We are creating confusion for our law enforcement,” Raybould told lawmakers. “It is unclear if, in the course of investigating the crime, if that individual is cleared of the crime and released, prior to them having their immigration status verified – would law enforcement be in compliance with the law for having released the individual without completing the verification?”

The bill will head to a Senate committee for further consideration.

A separate proposal would have required local law enforcement to apply for at least one federal program that delegates local police and deputies to carry out parts of ICE’s duties. It died in a committee Monday after a failed vote.

Nine agencies in Idaho are currently active in at least one of the federal programs, according to government documents.

Email records show the U.S. Department of Homeland Security even reached out to Idaho sheriffs in February of last year encouraging offices to apply to the program.

But 18 years ago, Arizona was the testing ground for the program in which local officers get authorized to perform federal immigration enforcement. Maricopa County faced significant auditing and monetary setbacks following a push to federalize their local deputies, according to a report from ProPublica.

“Every individual contacted is unique,” Hagar said. “There are examples across the country of local law enforcement who have taken inappropriate immigration actions and have opened up their cities and counties to multimillion dollar lawsuits.”

Five Maricopa County residents sued the sheriff’s office for targeting them solely based on their race nearly 18 years ago. A judge later agreed the raids and stops on the county’s Hispanic neighborhoods violated their constitutional rights, the report states. A U.S. Department of Justice investigation and court-mandated reforms followed. As of 2024, the county has spent more than $39 million on the lawsuit’s settlement, ProPublica reported.

There are three prongs to the federal program, records show: One is the “jail enforcement model” which allows local jails to hold noncitizens and immigrants while agents assess them; the other is a “warrant” model, which allows agents to train local officers to serve warrants in the jail on the federal government’s behalf; and the last is the “task force” model, which delegates local police and deputies to perform immigration agent duties.

Kootenai County began using the jail enforcement model and the warrant model on Aug. 28, according to ICE records. The county’s sheriff, Bob Norris, has been vocal for years about assisting agents in arrests and deportations.

In one press release from 2024, Norris said he was deploying additional resources in the county to “ensure peace.” In another release, he stated all noncitizens in the country without authorization should self-deport, and that “all assets of the KCSO will be used to assist” in deportations.

His office did not respond to a request for comment.

Wheeler was staunchly opposed to the bill mandating law enforcement apply to ascertain federal status. In a letter to lawmakers shared with The Spokesman-Review, he said he would never consent to relinquishing his “autonomy as sheriff.”

“I have a great working relationship with our local US Border Patrol agents. They are willing, day or night, to respond to my calls for assistance concerning any immigration issues that may arise during our criminal investigations. Since January 1, 2025, ICE has housed 30 of their arrests in my jail,” Wheeler wrote. “Local law enforcement agencies enforce Idaho State laws and ICE enforces Federal laws. I will not start enforcing federal laws, and I do not want federal agencies to enforce Idaho State laws.”