Documents: Doa Ana sheriff’s office assists Border Patrol with hundreds of apprehensions

The Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office continues to accept money for helping border patrol agents, despite the sheriff publicly stating it’s not the “duty or responsibility” of local law enforcement to execute immigration laws.

“My deputies, the office of the sheriff’s, here in Doña Ana, will not be enforcing immigration law,” Sheriff Enrique “Kiki” Vigil told ABC-7 in early April. “We’re not immigration officers.”

However, deputies working under Vigil assisted the United States Border Patrol with hundreds of apprehensions over the course of three years, according to documents obtained by ABC-7.

The apprehensions were part of Operation Stonegarden, a $55 million Homeland Security grant supporting the cooperation of The United States Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection with “local, tribal, territorial, state, and Federal law enforcement agencies” around the country.

From September 2015 to April 2018, the sheriff’s office referred more than 760 undocumented immigrants to Customs and Border Protection, the documents state.

Despite years of accepting federal money to help apprehend undocumented immigrants, Sheriff Enrique Vigil insisted his office will not assist with immigration law.

He wrote in an opinion piece to the Albuquerque Journal earlier this month:

“It is the federal government’s responsibility to enforce the immigration laws and not the duty or responsibility of the local governmental agencies.”

Deputies assisted border patrol agents as a “second line of defense,” according to the documents. They “provided a law enforcement presence” in rural parts of the county and assisted “in the apprehension, detection and prevention of the illegal entry of undocumented foreign nationals.”

Since 2007, Doña Ana County has accepted millions of dollars in Stonegarden funds, a spokeswoman with the department confirmed. In fiscal year 2016, the department accepted $708,000. The county also distributes funds to departments such as Las Cruces police, New Mexico state police and Hatch police.

However, Chairman Ben Rawson told ABC-7 the funds were not intended for assisting with apprehensions of undocumented immigrants in the county

” When we voted on this earlier this year, the sheriff told us it would be used specifically for drug-type situations or human-trafficking type situations and it would not be used to apprehend anyone that came across the border,” Rawson said.

The funds were largely used for overtime and equipment purposes, which Rawson said was greatly needed in the department.

“The Stonegarden funds were designed to be used to apprehend drug traffickers coming across the border and to help make our community a safer place from that standpoint,” Rawson said.

Local attorney Peter Goodman also combed through the documents.

“Sheriff’s deputies, who supposedly were not enforcing federal immigration law were enforcing it,” Goodman said.

The attorney told ABC-7 Vigil should be more transparent about his department’s actions.

“If you’re going to do it, say it,” Goodman said. “Be up front.”

ABC-7 has made several attempts to reach the sheriff for comment. He declined to comment.