TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on Sep 8, 2021

Immigrants rights group Allies of Knoxville's Immigrant Neighbors (AKIN) is urging the Department of Homeland Security to end a program that allows the Knox County Sheriff’s Office to detain immigrants, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. The 287(g) program allows Knox County deputies federal authority to conduct immigration screenings and to detain immigrants who entered the country without proper documents. AKIN says the former sheriff who applied for the program in 2017 was not authorized to do so and is considering filing a federal civil rights complaint if the program is not brought to an end.