TULSA, Okla. – Just a little under 600 immigrants, both legal and illegal, serving sentences for crimes in Oklahoma prisons will likely be a part of the first rounds of President-elect Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans.
Trump repeatedly promised mass deportations of illegal immigrants, especially ones connected to violent crimes both during campaign rallies and even during the Republican National Convention in which signs were passed out to those in attendance that said ‘MASS DEPORTATION NOW!’
“We don’t have a choice,” Trump said repeatedly. “Vote Republican and we will begin the largest deportation operation in American history.”
Trump campaign officials, members of Congress, and even immigration officials present and former, including ones in the first Trump Administration, have all said illegal immigrants who have already been convicted of a crime would likely be the first to be removed from the United States.
The status of legal immigrants who have committed crimes will also be considered because the feeling is they abused the privilege of being in America when they committed and were convicted of a crime.
“I’d like to start with that, with deporting those who are the most violent criminals. Those who are raping people or they’re pedophiles or murderers. Those should be the first ones to go,” said Congresswoman Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) in national media interviews after the Trump election victory was announced. Her points are being echoed by other Republican members of Congress and the new Republican U.S. Senate majority.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement already knows who in the U.S. prison and jail systems are here illegally or have immigrant status as part of the process, and they are formally identified upon being booked and initially charged.
“We monitor every state and local jail in the United States,” said Former ICE Director John Sandweg on CNN. “ICE does monitor every federal prison if somebody’s booked in there who’s undocumented or is currently on a visa but is now deportable because of their crime.”
Right now, immigrants legal and illegal who commit crimes must fully serve out their sentences before being deported by ICE (if ICE chooses them for deportation at all), but the likelihood of Trump waiting for them to serve out their sentence, which could still have many years left on it, is slim to none now that he is ambitious of having mass deportations begin almost immediately.
FOX23 News reached out to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections to see how many immigrants are serving sentences across all state prisons.
The agency recently was asked to provide the data as part of an interim legislative study at the state capitol that was taking place regardless of who won the election to assess the costs associated with housing illegal immigrants in Oklahoma prisons.
ODOC reports immigrants, illegal and unknown status, make up around 0.02% of the state’s prison population.
The numbers break down as such:
- 594 total non-citizens are in ODOC custody in prisons across the state.
- 526 of the total non-citizen population in ODOC custody are illegal immigrants.
- 480 immigrants, illegal and status unknown, are in ODOC custody under agreements with ICE for them to be housed on behalf of the Federal government and potentially face deportation after they finish their sentences.
- 114 immigrants, illegal and status unknown, are serving sentences for crimes within ODOC, but there is no agreement with ICE to house them.
- 68 inmates are not citizens, but there is no clear determination of how they entered the country and what their status is.
- 26 of the “status not reported” inmates are being housed under an agreement with ICE.
ODOC tells FOX23 News that because the Biden Administration is still in place until mid-January, no one has yet reached out to them when it comes to deporting any inmates outside of what is already planned for an inmate. There are also no firm plans in place yet to expedite anyone’s deportation.
ODOC said it regularly communicates with ICE about immigrants and any that enter into their custody, and it will remain in communication with Federal officials about deportation plans should they come to fruition.
When it comes to immigrants, legal and illegal, who are arrested, but they are not convicted of the crime yet, things are bit more complicated.
FOX23 reached out to the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office about ICE holds in their custody. As FOX23 has reported the number of ICE holds at the Tulsa County Jail has plummeted in recent years because Tulsa County cancelled the contract to house illegal immigrants in their facility, and in 2021 at the beginning of the Biden Administration, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued an order that illegal immigrants arrested for crimes must be eligible for bail like American citizens and immigrants who have legal status.
“They are arrested. They’re given a court date. They bond out of jail, and then they scatter to the winds, and we never see them again,” Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado told FOX23 in previous stories. “They never show up for that court date.”
A TCSO spokesperson told FOX23 because of those two policies alone, the number of immigrants held long term in the Tulsa County Jail is nearly non-existent these days. They do not anticipate hardly anyone in the Tulsa County Jail being a part of any mass deportation plans because most, if not all of the people in their custody, are American citizens.
When it comes to all immigrants who are arrested for crimes once Trump takes office again, things are a bit murky, Republican and immigration officials are saying on national media. Right now, the law requires a hearing to determine multiple factors including a finding of guilt of the crime they were arrested for before a deportation is allowed. However, Trump said he is looking at changes to legal status and how legal immigration works in the U.S. as well.
While legal immigrants may have more leniency to go through the criminal justice system before a determination is made, if an illegal immigrant is arrested, the original crime of being in the country illegally will be discovered at that point. Right now, the process for them once that discovery is made is not clear, and more guidance is expected under the new Trump Department of Homeland Security.
The last time any mass deportations back to Mexico took place in America was under Republican President Dwight Eisenhower when 1.3 million people were deported as illegal immigrants, including a small number of Mexicans who had actually became American citizens.
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