What is Mesa Police Department’s Involvement with the 287(g) Program?

The 287(g) program serves as an immigration enforcement partnership with state and local law enforcement agencies.

On November 19, 2009, the Mesa Police Department (MPD) signed the first 287(g) Memorandum of Agreement (MOA). The current 287(g) MOA went into effect on June 8, 2020 and will remain in effect until either party terminates or suspends the agreement. So, why discuss this now, years after the agreement went into effect?

Once every 3 years, a steering committee meets to discuss the 287(g) program. Because of the amount of time between meetings, the 287(g) program is often an afterthought that gets brought back into the community spotlight and gives the MPD a reason to explain it better to our residents.

The 287(g) program does not allow Mesa Police Officers to proactively search for and arrest undocumented immigrants. So, what does it allow?

In the MPD, specifically the holding facility, there is one Designated Immigration Officer (DIO). If a person shows markers of being an undocumented immigrant through the normal booking process, the DIO will perform a screening under the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) umbrella. Those who are deemed amenable to removal are identified while still being in custody, which greatly reduces the number of criminal offenders that are released back into the community.

Since 2020, the number of 287(g) encounters in Arizona total 644 and are broke down as follows:

·         Convicted Criminal- 407

·         Pending Criminal Charges- 225

·         Other Immigration Violator- 12

MPD has had three 287(g) encounters for 2022.

Therefore, while 287(g) may sound alarming at first, the program has been successful in identifying gang members, sex offenders, and murderers. These offenders are taken into ICE custody after serving their criminal sentences and then removed from our community.