U.S. immigration policy is shifting rapidly as President Donald Trump launches his second term in the White House. Since being sworn in just over a week ago, Trump has issued eight executive orders on immigration and signed the Laken Riley Act into law.
Trump’s orders aggressively crack down on illegal immigration and push for more detainments, while the Laken Riley Act, named after a Georgia college student who was killed by a Venezuelan man who entered the U.S. illegally, will require officials to detain immigrants arrested for crimes like shoplifting or assault.
Since Trump took office, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has begun making more arrests, according to The Associated Press, fueling rumors of deportation raids across the nation and throughout the Salt Lake Valley.
The Salt Lake Tribune has reached out to multiple agencies for more information. Here’s what we know and don’t know.
Has ICE changed its immigration enforcement in Utah? How so?
Salt Lake City’s ICE office has not responded to The Tribune’s questions about enforcement efforts. Nationwide, however, changes are already being reported, such as “collateral arrests” of any immigrants lacking permanent legal status whom agents may encounter when looking for a migrant with a criminal history, according to the AP. Such arrests were barred under former President Joe Biden’s administration.
ICE agents may now enter “sensitive locations,” such as schools, hospitals or churches when looking for undocumented immigrants — a practice that was also banned under Biden. The action is intended for agents to capture “criminal aliens” who hide in these sensitive locations to avoid arrest, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement last week.
Some Utah school officials sent out guidance to families after Trump issued his order allowing for such enforcement and stressed that schools cannot disclose families’ immigration status to federal authorities, as this information is not required for student enrollment in U.S. public schools.
The state has yet to offer guidance on the matter, leaving it unclear how Utah schools could or would respond legally if immigration enforcement occurred on school grounds.
State or local officials who interfere with the new administration’s immigration crackdown could face criminal charges, the Justice Department announced last week.
Who is being targeted by immigration enforcement, and how are local law enforcement agencies involved?
Salt Lake City’s ICE office has not responded to The Tribune’s questions about who is being targeted by enforcement efforts. A spokesperson for the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office said the agency is “working closely” with local and national partners to develop a “game plan” for enforcement of new executive orders but didn’t have any further comment.
Salt Lake City police referred questions about the department’s involvement with ICE enforcement efforts to Mayor Erin Mendenhall’s office.
“Salt Lake City is evaluating how recent executive orders impact the city,” Andrew Wittenberg, the mayor’s spokesperson, said in a statement. “In the meantime, we will continue to follow current policies and laws.”
Republican Salt Lake County Council Chair Dea Theodore said she’s heard rumors of ICE raids across the valley, adding that ICE agents should be cautious in their enforcement efforts.
“There’s innocent people that are citizens, and that’s not who we want to target,” Theodore said. “We want to target the hardcore criminals who are not contributing to our county, really… I’m hearing a lot of fear with some of our residents, which we don’t want.”
Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera is currently in Washington, D.C., meeting with sheriffs from across the country who are “trying to get on the same page,” Theodore said, to ensure officers target criminals in their immigration enforcement operations.
Theodore said the County Council is still awaiting an update from Rivera on how the county will be involved in those efforts.
“ICE is its own animal, so they’re out doing their own thing,” Theodore said. “It’s such a hard situation; I don’t think people should live in fear. If you don’t have a record, and you’re not doing anything wrong, and you’re here working, and you’re contributing to our society, you should be here. I welcome people like that.”
How many undocumented immigrants live in Utah?
Estimates on this vary. The Migration Policy Institute, a nonprofit immigration think tank, estimates about 89,000 unauthorized immigrants reside in the Beehive State. The Utah Legislature has a much higher estimate — 137,000, including about 48,000 children.
Does jail capacity pose a problem when it comes to enforcing immigration?
An increase in ICE arrests would surely create more pressure on the Salt Lake County jail. And the Laken Riley Act, which was signed into law Wednesday, will pave the way for those arrests by requiring the detention of immigrants lacking permanent legal status accused of theft and violent crimes, according to the AP.
County officials have said the jail desperately needs more beds; the facility has not been expanded since 2001. Since then, the county’s population has ballooned by over 30%.
Last year, nearly 4,000 inmates were released early due to overcrowding, County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Matt Dumont said during Tuesday’s County Council meeting. The jail dashboard shows the facility is already at 93% capacity with 1,954 inmates. Its operational capacity is 2,101.
“We do have a full jail, so that’s a really big issue,” Theodore said, adding that it was unfortunate voters rejected a $500 million bond last year that would have expanded capacity and created a new facility for low-level offenders.
“We’re just kind of waiting or in limbo,” Theodore said, “with these orders and with our jail.”
The County Council considered a resolution last month about immigration enforcement. What did it say?
Former council member Dave Alvord said he brought forward the resolution to ensure that the Sheriff’s Office was compliant with any orders from the Trump administration but noted it would have changed nothing with what the sheriff was already doing.
Rivera, a Democrat, said at the time that her office has been cooperative with law enforcement partners all along.
“I want to ensure that our communities, our residents, are not fearful, and that they don’t believe that we’re infringing on anybody’s rights,” Rivera said during the Dec.17 council meeting. “But at the same time … we have a challenge right now, and we have a crisis at the border. These individuals that we deal with, mainly on a daily basis, are part of the criminal element, and they are bringing drugs across the border, and they’re impacting our communities.”
The resolution was later deferred to a February council meeting so members would have updated information on any new enforcement mandates from the Trump administration.
