Idaho State Police transport 30 more immigrants from prison to ICE for deportation

After the Idaho Capital Sun reported that some of the Idaho State Police’s previous transports for deportation of immigrants accused of crimes had occurred before convictions, the state police agency has changed its policy. 

ISP officers have assisted federal immigration authorities in transporting more than 80 people out of state correctional facilities for deportation, since the governor announced the partnership last June. Gov. Brad Little has said the agreement for transports was intended to focus on “taking dangerous illegal alien criminals out of county jails after the completion of their sentences instead of being released back into Idaho communities.” 

In the most recent list of 30 transports since last October provided by the governor’s office, the Idaho Capital Sun could independently verify all but one had criminal convictions and served time in an Idaho prison before being transferred to federal authorities. 

Idaho State Police has sent more than 50 immigrants to facilities for deportation

“All of the charges and convictions listed are pulled from a national database available to law enforcement agencies, detailing each individual’s full criminal history,” Little’s Press Secretary Joan Vargas told the Sun in an email. “In some cases, there may be charges listed for crimes committed in another jurisdiction.” 

In October, an analysis of a prior list of more than 50 transports — executed through a formal agreement between state police and federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement — found that at least six of the people still had open or pending cases in court, and four of the people couldn’t be found in court records at all. 

The costs of the transports are reimbursed from the governor’s emergency fund. So far, $28,932.70 has been reimbursed, the governor’s office told the Sun. Little’s office is authorized to spend up to $300,00 of the account for the agreement, the Sun previously reported.

Director says Idaho State Police now verify convictions before transferring individuals to ICE

ISP Director Col. Bill Gardiner told Investigate West for a story published last December that state police hadn’t checked whether the people they were transporting had been found guilty and found out about the issue after the Sun’s reporting. 

Asked about the convictions at the time, Vargas told the Sun in an October email, “the the information on the individuals transported comes from ICE. However, ISP is only provided the charges, not information on the cases.”

Gardiner told Investigate West he later determined those transports occurred during a “leadership transition,” Investigate West reported, and he said the state police later began verifying convictions before transferring the people to ICE. 

Little’s office on May 18 announced the most recent list of people transferred for deportation, bringing the total to 83 people. 

Through searches of state and federal court records as well as Idaho Department of Correction records, the Sun verified the crimes provided in the press release for nearly all the cases. There were at least eight cases where the names provided in the press release appeared to be incorrectly spelled, and other misspellings or inconsistencies with entering multiple last names may have been the reason some of the records couldn’t be found. 

One record for a man from Mexico charged with piracy could only be found in IDOC records as a previous inmate who was discharged on Jan. 21. His conviction or court case was not available.

Eight of the people were reported in the state correction department’s prison resident database as “deported,” and nine were on ICE detainers, in which the federal authorities ask local law enforcement to hold undocumented people before transferring them to federal immigration detention centers. 

Five of the people could be found in ICE detention records, with three held in the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Washington state, and two held in two different California detention centers — in the California City Detention Facility and Golden State Annex. 

The verified convictions for those transported include six cases of felony possession of a controlled substance, three felony DUI convictions, a felony drug trafficking conviction, and three cases of aggravated assault.,  

Two cases included injury to a child and two were convicted of lewd conduct with a child under 16. 

In the previous list of the first 53 transports, five of the people listed had committed violent crimes, the Idaho Statesman reported. Several of the others had misdemeanor DUI charges, some of them still pending in court before the people were deported.