Group requests ICE resistance resolution from Coeur d’Alene

An advocacy group says it wants Coeur d’Alene to take a stance against Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity.

Members of North-Idaho-based nonprofit Idaho for All told City Council members on Tuesday that an official resolution should locally restrict ICE’s “heavy-handed and intimidating” nationwide conduct.

“I understand that I may be young, but I can tell right from wrong,” said public commenter Kylon Keon. 

Local partnerships with ICE first emerged earlier this year. 

In July, the Post Falls Police Department became the first police department in Idaho to join the 287(g) task force program, which deputizes state and local officers to perform federal immigration enforcement. The partnership has so far led to multiple joint immigration arrests between ICE and Post Falls Police, with additional immigration arrests being made solely by Post Falls Police.

The Spirit Lake Police Department officially entered the task force program earlier this month.

Idaho for All members argued on Tuesday that ICE activity has led to more than 50,000 monthly arrests being made and that municipal partnerships with the federal agency divert local resources from normal tasks. 

“The way that ICE has been able to run free and do things that clearly violate human rights does not make me feel safe when they come inside this community,” Keon said.

The Coeur d’Alene Police Department does not intend to join the 287(g) task force program or partner with ICE, Chief Greg Yeager said.

“It’s a tool that some agencies use,” he told the Coeur d'Alene Press in an email last month. “But not one we’ve had need of.”

Mayor Dan Gookin confirmed with the Coeur d’Alene Press that “our police department isn’t interested in the program for various reasons.” 

Council member Christie Wood, a former Coeur d’Alene Police officer, told The Press on Wednesday that she would support passing a resolution but that the city’s police department would comply with federal laws.

“In Coeur d’Alene, we’ve always been a leader when it comes to human rights issues or issues that we think negatively affect our community,” she said. “Sometimes, we end up on an island.” 

She also expressed concerns about the local police department working with ICE agents, questioning whether they’re “well-trained” and whether the city would be left “cleaning up the mess.”

Wood’s advocacy for the resolution, however, would need majority support to get on the city’s agenda.

“Whether it will end up on our agenda, I really don’t have a feel for,” she said. “Because that would take the mayor and the majority of council to get that on the agenda, but I don't know if that will happen.”

Idaho for All says it fights racism and civil injustice.