(Updated to include interview with Kobach and ACLU reaction)
The Kansas attorney general’s office and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation on Monday announced they signed an agreement with the federal government to allow KBI agents to help enforce immigration law.
The agreement would allow KBI agents to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to remove “criminal illegal aliens” from Kansas.
Kansas is one of the first states in the nation to enter such an agreement, according to the attorney general’s office.
“All across Kansas, illegal aliens who are dangerous criminals or gang members are released back to the streets on a regular basis. That will end. This agreement will ensure that those criminals are deported,” Kobach said.
Under the agreement, a limited number of KBI agents will receive ICE training that authorizes the agents to arrest immigrants who are in the country illegally, to serve and execute warrants for some immigration violations, and to issue immigration detainers.
“The KBI is pleased to have another tool at our disposal to get known criminal offenders out of our communities,” KBI Director Tony Mattivi said.
“This agreement will not shift KBI investigative priorities but will allow us to more swiftly achieve justice in cases in which the KBI currently focuses – major violent crimes, crimes committed against children, and targeting drug trafficking organizations.”
Micah Kubic, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, said Kobach will waste state resources.
“Kansans know firsthand that the vast majority of undocumented and documented immigrants are hard-working people who have lived and worked here for years,” Kubic said in a statment.
“We know that Americans overall support a fair, humane, and balanced approach to immigration policy, rather than mass deportations,” Kubic said.
“Unfortunately, A.G. Kobach is jumping on the bandwagon of politicians trying to turn neighbors against each other with fear-based narratives about crime.
“And in this case, Mr. Kobach seeks to divert our limited state resources into the bottomless pit of federal immigration enforcement.”
In a separate interview, Kobach said the KBI will be able to coordinate between local law enforcement and the Highway Patrol when an undocumented immigrant whom the federal government wants deported is found.
Kobach said that since mid-December, there have been five immigrants on the terror watch list apprehended in Kansas either by state or local law enforcement.
He said four of them were in Kansas illegally and one was not.
“Because there wasn’t effective communication so that ICE found out and could tell the deputy to hold on to this person, we need you to arrest him, they were all let go,” he said.
“We had five terror watch list individuals let go when they should have been held.”
Kobach said about four KBI agents will go through the specialized immigration enforcement training and possibly more in the future. He said the training takes about five to six weeks.
“They only put the immigration hat on when necessary,” Kobach said.
“It’s not as if we’re going to have these KBI agents who are going to spend their whole time doing immigration stuff,” he said.
“Rather, it will happen when something arises,” he said.
Kobach first raised the issue of deputizing local officials to enforce immigration law when he testified in favor of a resolution encouraging Gov. Laura Kelly to cooperate with the Trump administration in enforcing federal immigration laws.
Kobach also urged lawmakers to consider requiring state and local law enforcement to get federal training to help enforce immigration law.
He referred to a program that authorizes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to delegate to state and local law enforcement officers the authority to perform specified immigration enforcement under the agency’s direction and oversight.
The program, which was created in 1996, is intended to allow ICE to enhance collaboration with state and local law enforcement partners to arrest and remove noncitizens.
ICE reports that it has 135 agreements with local law enforcement agencies in 27 states to help enforce immigration law.
“A number of jurisdictions have done this in the past, and I would encourage you to compel whatever universe of law enforcement jurisdictions you believe should do this to do so,” Kobach told lawmakers.
“I will be having the Kansas Bureau of Investigation have a few officers trained up to get this authority, but you can certainly compel other local jurisdictions if you so choose to cooperate with the federal government,” he said.
