Federal officials are calling on counties to work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

Several sheriff’s offices in Minnesota have what’s called a 287(g) agreement with the agency. The agreement can be controversial. Different models allow departments to help enforce ICE operations and to serve warrants on people inside their jails. Crow Wing County has both. 

The county also houses detainees for ICE. Sheriff Eric Klang agreed to allow WCCO into the jail to talk about the agreements.

“We have the 287(g), the warrant model,” Klang said.

Klang signed two agreements with ICE last year.  

“When I signed that thing back in March, that was really about operational efficiency, meaning that if we had arrested somebody, or we had a detainee here, we couldn’t serve them the detainee paperwork. So I said, ‘Hey, why can’t we serve it? What’s the big deal?’” Klang said.

So far, it hasn’t been used. The other agreement is a task force model allowing deputies to help enforce ICE operations. Seven deputies went through online training.

“I’ve been in law enforcement for 30 years, and I’ve always supported our local, state and federal partners. And I wasn’t going to change because of political winds or because of the emotionally charged, you know, commotion going on around the country. I mean, that’s just not me. I’m gonna, I’m staying steady on that,” Klang said.

Mayerle asked what the task force model looks like.

“If you have a felony warrant against you and you’re a target of an ICE operation, you can bet that we’re going to be a part of that. But if you are just here simply because you cross the border, we are not going out with ICE going after people like that,” Klang said.

He says they were called in to assist on what he calls a targeted arrest for the first time last week. 

It was at El Potro restaurant in Brainerd, Minnesota.

“Was basically just standing by and taking a perimeter and transporting of individuals to our, to the jail, which they immediately took and they brought them to Duluth, to the federal detention facility,” Klang said.

He said the people ICE was targeting had a criminal record.

“They had criminal records, and there just happened to be a couple of them that ended up, as far as I know, have just crossed the border, so civil penalty, and they got scooped up in that arrest that we did as well,” Klang said.

The restaurant is now closed, with signs of support on the outside.    

Klang says that only more recently has he started getting hate mail over the ICE agreements. 

“I would say the majority of the population supports what we’re doing here in Brainerd. There are a few that are, you know, aren’t happy with me cooperating, collaborating with our federal partners,” Klang said.

Klang told us he thinks more departments should cooperate with the feds. He says he doesn’t like to see how the agents are being treated in the Twin Cities. And feels if locals were standing alongside them, some of the treatment of community members could also have been avoided. 

“Who knows the community better than the local law enforcement? A lot of these guys just got deployed here. They didn’t get a chance to finish their field training. I mean, they got 40 hours in the classroom. They don’t know anything about the mobile field force. And then you compound that by people yelling, screaming, throwing stuff at them. I mean, you know, it’s no wonder they don’t know that they’re acting out. Not typical that we would act out or respond by somebody doing that. So if we were standing alongside him, we could say, ‘Hey, no, no, we don’t do that here. We can’t do that. No, you don’t. You don’t. You don’t, you know, flip them back off because they’re flipping you off.’ You know, we can’t just randomly stop a car, you know, we could. We could be helping them and we wouldn’t be in this situation, this crisis that we’re in now,” Klang said.

The Department of Homeland Security responded to WCCO’s request about the January arrests:

“On Jan. 26, ICE agents in Brainerd, Minn., executed judicial criminal arrest warrants for Jose Baraja Farias and Javier Francisco Montoya-Barboza, both illegal aliens wanted on federal immigration charges. Montoya is a criminal illegal alien with a conviction for driving under the influence. Illegal aliens have killed and maimed far too many Americans while doing just that. Baraja is an illegal Mexican national who was previously removed from the United States in 2007 and subsequently reentered the country without authorization, a felony, in 2010. Two additional illegal aliens, Alberto Core Vidal Neri from Mexico and Nilo Fernando Piruch Tsenkus from Ecuador, were also arrested for unlawful presence in the United States. Both Baraja and Montoya were transported to Douglas County for judicial proceedings, while the others are pending removal proceedings. ICE will continue its efforts to uphold immigration laws and ensure community safety. Those who are in our country illegally have a choice—they can leave the country voluntarily or be arrested and deported. The United States taxpayer is generously offering free flights and a $2,600 to illegal aliens who self-deport using the CBP Home app. If they leave now, they preserve the potential opportunity to come back the legal, right way. The choice is theirs.”