Tulsa Authorities Answer Questions About Immigration Policy

Many people are asking questions about immigration raids. President Donald Trump said the recent arrests of hundreds of people in several large American cities fulfill a campaign promise.

We wanted to know if Tulsa County can expect to see raids here.

Right now, there are 153 undocumented immigrants being held in the Tulsa County Jail, but the majority of them were not even arrested here.

Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado is known for taking a tough stance on immigration.

"I think we have plenty of our own homegrown criminals, and we don't need to import anymore," he said.

With the current political climate, some wonder what that means for immigrants here.

We spoke with local immigration agents who said there are no new directives and that they are not actively searching people out.

The Tulsa County Sheriff's Office has an open partnership with ICE and said while it maintains that partnership it's not what some think.

"I can tell you that as long as I am sheriff here we do not engage in profiling, asking people on traffic stops where they were born, we are not rounding up undocumented citizens," Regalado said.

The sheriff said what deputies will do is when someone is arrested and booked into jail their information will possibly go through a program called 287 G if they meet certain criteria, but that still doesn't mean they will be placed under an ICE detainer.

In fact, for Tulsa County, Regalado said detainers for local inmates are down.

"The majority of the numbers that are specific to Tulsa County have dwindled. The majority of the individuals that we have in our jail under that program are from out of state or even from Oklahoma City, Texas, border towns," he said.

Regalado is passionate about cracking down on criminals, but said he's not insensitive to the immigrant community - he's the child of immigrants.

"So, to say that I'm against immigration is ludicrous for the simple fact that I have a lot of people in my family, including my parents that immigrated to this country."

Earlier this year, Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan responded to the president's executive order on immigration and told our partner, The Frontier, that the police department is not in the business of enforcing federal immigration laws.

1/26/2017 Related Story: Tulsa Mayor, Police Chief Respond To President’s Executive Order On Immigration