Recently, Park City saw an ICE operation that local officials confirmed was a targeted arrest. The incident raises questions about how immigration enforcement works, who is involved and what residents should know when federal and local roles overlap.
For instance, what is the difference between a targeted arrest and a raid?
Laura Rojas, immigration attorney for the Wasatch Immigration Project, said the key distinction is that a raid is a broad operation — often at a workplace — where agents check many employees’ work eligibility, sometimes with little advance notice to employers.
A targeted arrest, by contrast, focuses on a specific person who has already exhausted appeals, received a judge’s removal order and is subject to an arrest warrant; agents then locate, detain and deport that individual without further court proceedings. While targeted arrests are a longstanding practice, in action, proceedings are not so clear.
On the ground, residents are reporting stops where bystanders get questioned or detained even if they weren’t the subject of a warrant.
“Technically, if you’re a passenger in a car and the police officer stops your friend who’s driving, you don’t have to answer questions, you weren’t the one driving, but that’s what they’re doing, They’re starting to question all the other people in the car, if they look brown or speak Spanish,” Rojas said. “Also, when they’re serving warrants at homes, they’ll go to people’s houses and try to talk to people and sweep up the rest of the people, because they have these numbers they’re supposed to meet.”
The White House has instructed ICE to make 3,000 arrests per day, which has led to issues throughout the country of racial profiling and U.S. citizens being detained — all amplified by recent Supreme Court actions enabling this practice.
Rojas said the landscape is shifting fast, and clear information is one way residents can protect themselves while policy fights play out in the courts.
Another term showing up more often is “287(g).” These are formal agreements that let local police departments perform certain federal immigration functions, ranging from paperwork and jail screening to field operations that resemble ICE work.
Cooperation varies by agency and by one of three models — warrant officer, jail enforcement and task force.
The Warrant Service Officer model, about 50% of agreements in Utah including the Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office, is the most limited option that lets local officers serve and execute ICE administrative arrest warrants on people already in local jails but does not allow officers to interrogate individuals about immigration status; it mainly streamlines transfer from local to federal custody.
The Jail Enforcement Model, about 14% in the state, applies inside jails and allows officers to question people about status, issue ICE detainers (holding someone up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released) and enter immigration data/paperwork for removal proceedings; it targets people already arrested for state or local crimes.
The Task Force Model, about 36% in the state, is the broadest, letting deputized officers enforce immigration law in the field during routine policing: question and arrest individuals, issue detainers, arrest warrants and search warrants outside a jail setting. This model has been controversial due to concerns over racial profiling and civil rights.
In Utah, Warrant Service Officer model agreements include the Department of Corrections and several county sheriffs’ offices (including Wasatch); Jail Enforcement Model agreements include Sanpete and Washington counties; and Task Force agreements include Riverton Police and the sheriffs’ offices in Tooele, Utah, Washington and Weber counties.