The Broome County Jail recently revised its internal policies on holding detainees on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. According to Broome County Sheriff Fred Akshar, the jail will only consider accepting new detainees who were placed in custody under a judicial warrant or detainer.

Akshar said the policy change was implemented over the past three months amid ongoing legislative debates over state and local cooperation with ICE.

“As our team continues to follow the ongoing legislative debate in Albany regarding the detention of federal detainees, and until there is clear resolution on the issue at the state level, we’ve made a slight policy change in the past three months,” Akshar said in a statement to Pipe Dream. “Broome County Correctional Facility has only been accepting new ICE detainees who are in custody based on a judicial warrant/detainer. Regardless of the uncertainty unfolding in Albany, our team remains focused on putting public safety and the safety and security of our Broome County community first, while always upholding the law.”

The sheriff’s office previously told Pipe Dream that the office has held detainees on behalf of federal and state partners “for decades.”

Last March, Akshar’s office signed a 287(g) agreement with ICE under its Warrant Service Officer program, which “trains, certifies and authorizes [the agency’s] officers to serve and execute administrative warrants on aliens currently in your agency’s custody.”

Any issued warrants apply only to those already held in the jail.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, a judicial warrant is signed by a state, federal or magistrate judge.

Over the past year, some community members have vocally opposed Akshar’s partnership with ICE. A group of local activists and volunteers in December created a humanitarian project called “Humans of ICE” to spotlight the stories of some immigrants held in the county jail.

Christina Zawerucha ‘05, the project manager of Humans of ICE and lecturer and conversation pairs coordinator at Binghamton University’s English Language Institute, told Pipe Dream in February that the organization’s goal is “to help humanize the people who are detained in the Broome County Jail by ICE.”

While local activist groups approved of the change by Akshar’s office, Adam Flint ‘88 MA ‘98, coordinator of Concerned Residents of Greater Binghamton, said in a press release that the 287(g) agreement should be terminated.

“We want to celebrate this win, but acknowledge the real threat that ICE and the 287(g) agreement still poses to our community,” Flint said. “The 287(g) agreement remains in place, which means the jail can continue to hold people in the Broome County Jail for ICE.”