The Washoe County Sheriff's Office is applying for grant funding from the Department of Homeland Security to remodel parts of its jail for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations.Â
The amount the office is looking for is roughly $436,000. For multiple years, the office has applied for funding from the Homeland Security Grant Program. Any agency in the state can apply for a piece of it.
Each year there's roughly, $3 million to play with.
Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam says the grants help fund their Citizens Emergency Response Team, and their bomb squad.
There's another prominent source in the state called the Urban Area Security Initiative or UASI. That source only goes to Clark County, given its larger population.
Both the HSGP and UASI sources have looked to be at risk of going away due to actions in Washington D.C.
"So this year, what happened was the federal government, at the stroke of midnight, said there was no UASI funding on a Friday," Sheriff Balaam said. "On a Saturday, they called the states and said there is UASI funding and for the state of Nevada, which it was roughly around $3 million, they doubled it. It was $6 million, with a caveat."Â
That caveat being that 10 percent of each source was to be used on border security and protections. If the money is not spent, they risk losing the entire pie for both sources.
Currently, multiple local counties in Nevada are in ICE's 287(g) program. It allows state and local officers the authority to perform immigration officer functions if a local county has a jail that has a Detention Liaison Officer.
"We do not participate in that program because I have ICE in our jail, and that's the one thing I would love the viewers to know is nothing has changed in the Washoe County Detention Facility in the last 35 years, since, well 32 since I've been here," Sheriff Balaam said. "ICE has been in our facility the entire time. My entire career we have cooperated with ICE. So that's why we don't participate in the 287(g). ICE is here. They have an office. They have their own computer."
Since the office doesn't participate in the program, they want to look for ways to ease up the process.
The first part they plan to use the grant on is streamlining the release and holding process.
"If they come when they can pick up their ICE inmates to transport them out, that takes anywhere from one to three hours," Sheriff Balaam said.
The other component is giving ICE its own space for interviews.
"We have a room right now that's a storage room," Sheriff Balaam said. "Right now, back to when ICE determines if they want to come talk to you. If you were in one of our housing units, they go talk to you and they ask you questions out in the open. And so in speaking with ICE here, they would like an interview room."
Balaam stresses they are not increasing capacity and they do not have a special hold for ICE inmates.
"We're here to keep people safe, and we're here to help people," he said. "And so when it comes to that, I don't care about your status. I'm here to help you. I care about somebody who's preying upon you. And if that's the case, then I'm going to deal with it, because that's what I took an oath to do."
The sheriff says he also wanted to clear up that he technically does not have an ICE contract.
He has one contract with the United States Marshals Service, that also incorporates the FBI, DEA, ATF, and ICE. The contract is to hold federal inmates at the Washoe County Jail.
Balaam says this won't come to fruition until at least the middle of next year.
It needs approval form the federal, state, and county level before they start reaching out to contractors and designing it.Â
