Random Monday Morning Thoughts

Make that 40 years ago for the movies.  And Sgt. Nick went back to his normal police duties 

six months later. 

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• Alert: This is a Special One Topic Edition of Random Thoughts.
• We have big updates on the Decatur City Council's plan to vote tonight on voluntarily having the Decatur Police Department team up with ICE under ICE's "Task Force Model." Stay with me here, 
  

  
  
  
• A memo was prepared by the City Manager to the City Council last Thursday attempting to explain the proposed adoption of the proposed 287(g) Task Force Model Agreement. The public saw the memo for the first time on Friday which was also the first time the actual proposed Ice Agreement, and the proposed Resolution to adopt it, were posted online.  That's a very short fuse.
  
• The complete City Manager's memo is posted here (with my annotations.)  Within it contains the most carefully worded, yet meaningless, sentence ever. It basically says, "Don't worry - The new ICE Agreement won't change a single thing the Decatur Police Department is currently doing except for the parts of the ICE agreement which definitely changes the ways they are currently doing things.":  
  
  
  
• So let's take a look at parts of the actual proposed Ice Agreement.  The complete Agreement is posted here (with my annotations). Excerpts include the following: 
• Good grief.  Local officer(s) will "be approved by ICE to perform certain functions of an immigration officer under the direction and supervision of ICE within [Decatur's] jurisdiction."
  
• And if that wasn't clear enough, the agreement says it again: "Immigration enforcement activities conducted by participating [Decatur officers] will be supervised and directed by ICE." And when Decatur officers are in the field as directed, they "shall" contact an ICE supervisor for "guidance."
  
• The Agreement actually spells out the exclusive ICE duties that Decatur PD officer(s) will perform.  Here are some of them (and that first one is an all-encompasing banger of a power which Decatur PD does not currently possess): 
  
  
  
  
• And then there's this weird and disturbing provision which dictates that Decatur officers can be "assigned and/or co-located" with ICE.  Co-located?! 
  
  
  
• And, if that's not enough, the city's own proposed Resolution expressly says that the ICE duties performed by Decatur PD "will expand" the agency's powers (as well as saying Decatur PD "desires to work in conjunction with ICE on immigration enforcement matters." Really?)

• And let's talk about money. 
• The City Manager's memo says that the city will receive "Up to $7,500 per [designated] officer per quarter." That is misleading. First, the only source of that number is a one page flyer ICE sends out. And even that flyer says the "up to $7,500" amount is for equipment.    
• But you would think that the actual ICE Agreement would clearly spell out exactly how much compensation the city will receive for delegating an officer(s) to ICE, right? It does. It says ICE pays the city nothing.  There's not even a single reference to "up to $7,500" or any other dollar figure anywhere in the Agreement. 
• And how is this paragraph in the Agreement not a deal breaker? I thought Decatur had a full-time city attorney to review such things?: 
  
• I'm not saying ICE hasn't unilaterally paid some money in the past under 287(g) agreements. For example, I've seen some evidence of police agencies in Texas having received $100,000 for "vehicles/transport" for ICE purposes, but I have no idea how many officers those police departments have had to dedicate to ICE to get those dollars (or how many "illegals" those officers had to first round up.) Since ICE isn't obligated to pay under the Agreement, it will want to see "results" before it is writing any checks, right? 
• Just for fun, I asked ChatGPT to compare the City Manager's memo to the text of the proposed ICE agreement. What it produced is at this link. 
• Finally, the fact that someone (the brand new Mayor, perhaps?) is trying to bully this thing through, with only four days notice to the public, is unconscionable. Decatur is better than this. 
• You only have a few hours left to educate yourself. 

• Decatur City Council meetings are broadcast live at this link.
• Thank you for your attention to this matter.