Utah prison officials may be pressed into service to enforce new laws that cut off undocumented immigrants from state services. In a story for the Salt Lake Tribune, Steve Gehrke writes that the state lacks enough staff to enforce immigration reform laws and is considering "cross--deputizing" the probation and parole agents to double as immigration enforcers.
Jails around the state already use a prisoner's citizenship status to determine whether that person has access to education, employment or counseling services while behind bars.
But it can take up to a year for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to determine a prisoner's status and arrange for post-release deportation. Cross-deputizing deputies would allow such determinations to happen more quickly, but opponents of the plan argue prison staff are already swamped with their own work loads.
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In other parts of the country, the welfare checks have resulted in children being taken out of their homes and put back into government custody
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