{"id":64592,"date":"2019-10-28T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-28T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/federal-funds-withheld-from-rural-police-over-immigration-fight\/"},"modified":"2019-10-28T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-28T11:00:00","slug":"federal-funds-withheld-from-rural-police-over-immigration-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/federal-funds-withheld-from-rural-police-over-immigration-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal funds withheld from rural police over immigration fight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Police
Police Cpl. Matt Dufva discusses why radios are such a critical piece of equipment for law enforcement while on duty Tuesday at Fort Lewis College. The FLC Police Department would have received $22,000 in Justice Assistance Grant funding for radios if the program hadn\u2019t been frozen.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Millions of federal dollars are being withheld from local law enforcement agencies, including some in Southwest Colorado, where states or individual communities have butted heads with the U.S. Department of Justice over immigration policy.<\/p>\n

In 2017, the Department of Justice said law enforcement agencies must meet two immigration-related requirements to receive funds from the federal grant program. Colorado sued the DOJ in March alleging the requirements are unconstitutional. In the meantime, the federal funds have been withheld from Colorado agencies, meaning rural agencies are being deprived of millions of dollars, according to state and local agencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmaller, rural jurisdictions look forward to the availability of this money every year, simply because they don\u2019t have the budgets \u2026 to be able to support the modernization of their agencies,\u201d said Joe Thome, director of the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice.<\/p>\n

To receive the funds, the Department of Justice requires states, communities and individual agencies to notify the U.S. Department of Homeland Security 48 hours before releasing undocumented immigrants and to allow DHS officials into jails to question inmates about their immigration status.<\/p>\n

If recipients \u2013 like courts, correctional facilities and law enforcement agencies \u2013 do not meet those requirements, they may not receive funds.<\/p>\n

In its lawsuit, Colorado argued that withholding the funds violates the 10th Amendment \u2013 along with other statutory violations \u2013 which says the federal government is not permitted to \u201ccommandeer\u201d or compel state and local officials to enforce federal law.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement agencies receive the funding for equipment like radios, staff positions and community programs by applying to the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program, offered through the Bureau of Justice Assistance in the DOJ.<\/p>\n

Since 2017, Colorado has disbursed about $537,000 of the federal funds to law enforcement agencies. That leaves $5.5 million in grants that have been awarded during the 2017, 2018 and 2019 JAG application periods that cannot be disbursed, Thome said.<\/p>\n

\"Updating
Updating equipment is one common reason law enforcement agencies apply for funding from the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program. Police Cpl. Matt Dufva shows equipment in the back of a patrol vehicle Tuesday at Fort Lewis College.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In 2017 and 2018, rural agencies requested about $2.3 million of those funds, according to The Durango Herald<\/em>\u2019s analysis of recipient reports. The division hasn\u2019t posted the 2019 recipient report.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen these (JAG) monies get delayed by the Department of Justice, it really disproportionately impacts these rural, smaller communities,\u201d Thome said.<\/p>\n

In La Plata, Montezuma and Archuleta counties, four agencies are waiting for more than $200,000 from their 2017 and 2018 applications.<\/p>\n

The Bayfield Marshal\u2019s Office is waiting to receive less than $64,000 to add a full-time deputy position. Without JAG funding for the new position, the office is caught between fully supporting its youth law enforcement classes<\/a> in the Bayfield School District and fully supporting its patrol officers in the face of expected population growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a frustration that, quite frankly, the money\u2019s being held hostage,\u201d Bayfield Marshal Joe McIntyre said, making clear he was taking a nonpartisan perspective. \u201cI think anybody who was awarded this grant funding could probably say it\u2019s a frustration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other agencies are either still waiting on funds or had to figure out an alternative solution.<\/p>\n

\"Police
Police Cpl. Matt Dufva checks residence halls Tuesday at Fort Lewis College. Like others around the state, FLC Police Department applied for a Justice Assistance Grant and did not receive funds.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Fort Lewis College Police Department was awarded $22,000 for radios, but the agency had to draw from to other funds to update the equipment, said Lauren Savage, spokeswoman for the college.<\/p>\n

The Southern Ute Indian Tribe was awarded more than $18,000 in 2017. The tribe could not be reached for comment for this story.<\/p>\n

The Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office received $62,000 in 2017 for a continuing education program focused on reducing crime and recidivism; however, the agency is still waiting on $100,000 to add three court security positions in Montezuma and Dolores county courthouses.<\/p>\n

The Sheriff\u2019s Office can provide only one security officer to monitor multiple courtrooms while three others focus on different courthouse security needs. That jeopardizes safety, said Sheriff Steve Nowlin. The agency also has seen drug deals and civil disputes take place at the courthouse, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the bad things happen, and I end up with officers injured or citizens injured, that\u2019s a problem,\u201d Nowlin said. The funding freeze shows that some entities aren\u2019t taking critical needs of officers seriously, he said.<\/p>\n

\"Police
Police Cpl. Matt Dufva stands next to a patrol vehicle Tuesday. Law enforcement agencies around the state apply to the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program for equipment like patrol vehicles.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The move to freeze funds set off a flurry of lawsuits from around the country. Federal courts already found the two requirements unlawful in cases brought by Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and Evanston, Illinois.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, in every Byrne JAG case, the courts have ruled that the Justice Department does not have the statutory authority to create the immigration-related special conditions for Byrne JAG grants,\u201d said Lawrence Pacheco, director of communications for the state Attorney General\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s lawsuit is pending in federal district court in Denver. The DOJ filed a motion with the court to dismiss the case, and on Monday, the Colorado Attorney General\u2019s Office filed a motion with the court asking it to rule in favor of the state. It\u2019s unclear how long it will take for the court to issue a ruling.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Division of Criminal Justice said if Colorado wins its case, the agencies will receive all of the backlogged funds.<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colorado files lawsuit, says Justice Department move is unconstitutional<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,13,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-64592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64592"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=64592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}