On Thursday’s broadcast of MS NOW’s “The Briefing,” former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson stated that 287(g) agreements, like the one ended in Virginia by Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D), are “in general, a good idea, for reasons of public safety and law enforcement. If you want to get at the worst of the worst, you’re going to find the worst of the worst in our jails. Local law enforcement will encounter the worst of the worst undocumented. And so, there [need] to be partnerships between federal and local law enforcement to go after these people.”
Host Jen Psaki asked, “We only have about a minute left, but let me just ask you about something I read this morning, Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) has followed a number of other states that are considering kind of ending so-called 287 agreements, which is something that is part of the agreement and the cooperation between ICE enforcement officials and local authorities. What is the impact of that, and do you think that is a good decision by states that are doing this, who are trying to restrict the power of ICE?”
Johnson responded, “287(g) is, in general, a good idea, for reasons of public safety and law enforcement. If you want to get at the worst of the worst, you’re going to find the worst of the worst in our jails. Local law enforcement will encounter the worst of the worst undocumented. And so, there [need] to be partnerships between federal and local law enforcement to go after these people. This is what the Trump administration said they would do. Unfortunately, they’re countering that by making ICE in these big cities toxic. No one wants to work with them. And so, in Democratic administrations, like the one I was in, we spent years trying to rebuild these relationships for reasons of public safety.”
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