ICE officers were in Ulysses last week sending some local residents into panic mode. Comments on social media included fear of a raid and abandoned children. However, that was not the case here.
“The time the ICE officers were here they made two arrests on immigration warrants,” said Chief Ron Vagher. “These two individuals had been through the process and they either didn’t go to court like they were supposed to or violated some other law so, they had immigration warrants issued for them.”
Vagher said the two were interviewed by ICE officers.
“Through the interview process it was determined they were single males,” Vagher said. “There were no children involved.”
There was a third arrest.
“We arrested one individual locally for driving while suspended,” Vagher explained.
All in all, officers made contact with more than 20 individuals.
“We had contact with over 20 people who were identified as being in the country unlawfully,” Vagher said. “We made one traffic stop with 12 people in one vehicle — 10 of them were identified as being in the country unlawfully. There were no criminal convictions or warrants on any of them. ICE agents spoke to them to make sure they were not victims of human trafficking. They weren’t victims of crimes at least none reported that they were. They were provided information on how to work in this country legally by the ICE agents and sent on their way.”
Vagher and Sheriff James Biddle both agreed there was no raid in Ulysses.
“There was no door-to-door,” Vagher said. “We did not go to businesses. One traffic stop was at a construction site, because that is where the individual decided he wanted to stop his vehicle after driving a block and a half with a patrol car behind him with their lights on. We don’t know why he did what he did, but he chose the stop location. ICE was here but there was no big raid. The only ones taken in to custody had warrants and both of them were adults. No children were involved. We were assured by the ICE agents that those arrested were single males.”
Biddle said the extent of the help his department gave to ICE was to house the two subjects for them for a short time.
Some social media comments have indicated that local law enforcement should not have helped ICE agents.
“We will help any law enforcement entity who comes here to affect any type of law enforcement in this community, whether they are federal or state agencies who come in - that’s part of our job and what we get paid to do,” Vagher said. “Nobody gets upset when DEA comes in and we work with them. Nobody gets upset when the FBI comes in and we work with them. Nobody got upset when the US Marshals come in hunting fugitives. Just because the political atmosphere is what it is, we aren’t going to change how we work. We weren’t going after women when ICE was here. We weren’t going after children. We weren’t going after anyone who hadn’t already been in trouble. After 20 people were contacted only two were arrested by ICE.”
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