Sweeping state immigration crackdown to get Wyoming committee hearing

Under a bill brought by Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, every police officer in Wyoming will be required to ask every person they pull over to prove their lawful presence in the United States. 

If the stopped motorist can’t prove they’re in the country legally, they’ll be detained until they can — and handed over to the federal government if they can’t.

The Torrington Republican brought the dictate in a bill that would add sweeping immigration enforcement requirements to state statute, charging police, public officials and employers with a duty to question the citizenship of Wyomingites. 

Senate File 124 “Illegal immigration-identify, report, detain and deport,” has been awaiting a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The committee’s chairman, Cheyenne Republican and attorney Jared Olsen, told WyoFile the committee will most likely hear the bill Tuesday.

Lawmakers this year are weighing a number of measures that thrust the state into immigration enforcement, traditionally the duty of the federal government. Those bills are in various stages of the legislative process, and have drawn opposition in some cases from surprising corners. 

A bill brought by freshman Rep. Joel Guggenmos, R-Riverton, would punish local officials who refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. That measure is designed to prevent sanctuary cities or counties from taking root in Wyoming, despite no local governments having implemented such ordinances. The bill passed its first vote on the House floor Thursday with two more to go before consideration in the Senate. 

Another freshman Republican representative, Cheyenne’s Gary Brown, brought a bill to punish employers who hire undocumented immigrants. That bill drew quick opposition from lobbyists for some of Wyoming’s weightiest industry organizations, like the Wyoming Farm Bureau and the Wyoming Hospitality and Travel Coalition. Speaker of the House Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, has yet to assign that bill to a committee, though Brown introduced it Jan. 14. If not taken up by the end of next week it will die.

But Steinmetz’s bill proposes the heaviest crackdown on undocumented immigrants by far. 

The senator would make it illegal to transport an undocumented person into Wyoming, or to shelter them, particularly in an effort to conceal them from authorities — in the manner that some churches have provided sanctuary to people facing deportation in the past. The Florida Legislature passed a similar, though narrower, measure. A federal judge has for now ruled it unconstitutional, pending further litigation. 

“Parents who live near the state border may be unable to drive their children to medical appointments or soccer matches,” The Farmworker Association of Florida, wrote in the lawsuit that blocked the law. The suit described conditions imposed on Floridians that could soon be imposed on Wyomingites, if lawmakers back Steinmetz’s measure. “Co-workers may be unable to drive each other to work. Friends may be unable to give each other rides to the grocery store. Churches may be unable to transport members of their congregation to religious events.”

Under Steinmetz’s bill, Wyoming officials providing public benefits would be required to check the immigration status of anyone over 14 years old, with some exceptions for emergency and medical services. Private employers too would be turned into citizenship inquisitors — under the bill they are required to report an employee to authorities if they learn they’re undocumented. Employers would face fines of up to $16,000 for knowingly hiring an undocumented person. 

The bill would also require the Wyoming Attorney General to sign an agreement with the federal government that puts the state’s justice system in service of federal enforcement. Sheriffs too must sign agreements with the federal government, placing their jails in the service of deportation efforts.

Steinmetz’s bill makes no distinction between immigrants charged with offenses like DUIs or violent crimes and those whose only transgression is being in the country without proper authorization. In doing so it surpasses much of the enforcement policy of President Donald Trump and other federal authorities, who have mostly suggested they’ll focus on removing undocumented immigrants charged with crimes, as well as any undocumented people swept up in the process. 

Steinmetz declined an initial interview with WyoFile when the legislation was introduced on Jan. 21, and instead asked for questions to be sent by email. In response to those questions, she wrote that her bill “is a vehicle that we can amend and use. I wanted to get it in early so that I could begin the conversation.” 

She did not respond this week to an email asking what amendments she may bring to the bill. In her initial response, she said she would amend the bill “to mirror President Trump’s policies.”

Sheriffs this session came out against a different bill that specifically directed them to join hands with federal authorities, according to reporting in the Jackson Hole News & Guide. Their opposition sunk Rep. Martha Lawley’s House Bill 276, “State agreements to perform immigration functions.” Following testimony from the state’s lead law-enforcement lobbyist, the House Appropriations Committee voted 4-3 last Friday against bringing the bill forward for a full House debate. 

Some sheriffs are pursuing agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for their jails and jail deputies without a state mandate. Still, they’re resistant to being told to do so. “These agreements cost time and money,” Allen Thompson, executive director of the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police, said in public testimony on that bill. “And most importantly, they incur manpower that many agencies just cannot incur.”

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Sheriffs are expected to raise similar concerns with Steinmetz’s bill, which does not account for the fact that the federal government won’t pursue such agreements with every sheriff’s department. “We have a lot of sheriffs that are interested in forming relationships with ICE,” Thompson told WyoFile. “However, ICE isn’t necessarily interested in all the sheriff’s offices in Wyoming.”

This week, the Wyoming branch of the American Civil Liberties Union sent all 23 Wyoming sheriffs a letter warning them against agreements with ICE. Such contracts “have a history of harming public safety, imposing serious financial burdens on localities, and leading to civil rights violations,” the letter read. Signed by ACLU staff attorney Andrew Malone and advocacy director Antonio Serrano, the letter described law enforcement agencies that had abandoned ICE agreements amid mounting costs of running the programs. 

The letter also warned sheriffs that such agreements won’t protect them from lawsuits over civil rights violations. Undocumented immigrants are still subject to legal protections against unlawful detentions, and the ACLU has argued that holding them in jails on deportation warrants that aren’t signed by a judge is unconstitutional. 

Opponents of charging local authorities with federal immigration enforcement often argue that the arrangements plunge communities into states of fear and distrust, where undocumented people stop cooperating with local officers and generally retreat from civic life. “Your local community’s perception would be that your department is hand-in-glove with ICE,” the ACLU advocates wrote, “and that every one of your officers or deputies wears a second hat of immigration enforcement.” That perception, the writers continued, will discourage immigrants from reporting crimes.

Thompson has said Wyoming’s sheriffs and police chiefs are generally supportive of immigration enforcement. However, he questioned whether legislation that requires officers to investigate immigration statuses during traffic stops is a good fit for the state’s many small towns. 

“It remains to be seen, should this bill pass, how it will be received by the public,” Thomspon said. 

Thompson, a former Sheridan County sheriff, described the proposed law as, if nothing else, uncomfortable for a deputy or police officer keeping the peace in their Wyoming hometown. Under Steinmetz’s bill, Thompson would have been required to ask for citizenship status from “that neighbor that I’ve known my entire life, of who I remember when they were born in the United States,” he said. “Our law enforcement officers… really do know who they serve and interact with, so asking that question seems a little redundant.”