Utah County Commission, sheriff defend contract with ICE after additional citizen pushback

PROVO — The Utah County Commission and sheriff defended their contract with the Department of Homeland Security for additional immigration enforcement despite additional pushback from some residents Wednesday.

The commission posted a new agenda item on Tuesday to approve a "service agreement with U.S. Department of Homeland Security for reimbursement of Utah County Sheriff's Office services."

Immediately, residents began voicing their disapproval and calling for people to attend the Wednesday commission meeting.

While around a few dozen showed up on Wednesday, the controversial topic isn't new for the county. In July last year, around 115 people spoke during a heated five-hour discussion when the county was initially considering adopting a cooperative agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Known as 287(g) accords with ICE, several counties in Utah have entered into cooperative agreements with the federal agency, but Utah County was the loudest to object to the decision. Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith said the agreements give local officials more leeway to work with ICE on addressing illegal immigration.

No copy of the ICE service agreement was attached to the July meeting's agenda. A document attached to Wednesday's agenda, however, has a date of April 2026, has not been signed by a commissioner and has a "draft" watermark across all pages.

The contract states that officers are eligible for reimbursement for time spent on "purposeful and intentional immigration enforcement activities."

The posting of the agenda item and contract on Tuesday caused alarm for some residents who understood it as a new, expanded agreement to reimburse county deputies with federal funds for immigration enforcement.

Twelve people were allowed to speak during Wednesday's public comment period, with residents repeatedly calling for the county to cancel the contract.

Robert Day from Alpine said the agreement has "huge potential for getting the county into trouble." He referenced problems ICE has had in Utah and other states, including allegations that they were using incorrect warrants to arrest people unnecessarily.

"Life is tough already. I just really hope our sheriff's department is not going to be part of making life tough for people who already have very challenging circumstances," Day said.

Commissioner Skyler Beltran clarified after Day's comment that the agreement is not being expanded and remains the same as before. Wednesday's agenda item was just a formality for the reimbursement agreement for some staff and a vehicle that were already "afforded," he said.

"This is not new programs or agreements or anything to do with ongoing programs. This is just receiving money that has already been spent that the federal government is reimbursing us," Beltran said.

Jay Allen of Mapleton said he was at the July meeting and feels "more strongly now that the evidence is clear this agreement is unsafe, unnecessary and unfunded."

Sheriff's deputies are paid to enforce criminal law, not execute civil immigration policies, but if they are working for ICE, then "they are not doing criminal law enforcement. We want them to do that job, not ICE's job," he said.

Allen hopes the county will take steps to fix the problem by canceling the agreement. He said the more than 100,000 Hispanic residents of Utah County do not feel safe calling the sheriff's office because they think an ICE agent may respond.

Provo resident Demitria Cline pointed out that ICE has already mistakenly detained university students in the county who had valid visas.

Some residents asked clarifying questions on how many officers were getting paid, how many "intentional immigration enforcement operations" were occurring, what training was being given to the deputies for immigration incidents and how well other enforcement issues were being taken care of if immigration was being emphasized.

"An incentive for one type of law enforcement operation is a disincentive for all other types of law enforcement operation," said Caroline Collette of Springville. She added that at other times, agencies have incentivized officers for specific tasks, which diverts resources and attention from other types of enforcement.

A Mexican American woman who identified herself only as Michelle from Orem said she was talking with a group of kids during a field trip with her child.

"All these fourth graders knew who ICE was and had family plans on what to do if their parents get taken," she said emotionally. "I am an American citizen and yet I carry my Utah County birth certificate with me because I am afraid."

She then passionately called out Commissioner Brandon Gordon, who previously had spoken of his love for his brother-in-law, who works for ICE.

"You are a public servant; you should care about me, too. You should care about the fourth graders that are terrified and their families that are terrified. Please dissolve this," she said.

Nathan Thornburg of Eagle Mountain questioned why the agenda item was made public only a day before the meeting, saying such behavior "erodes trust with the public."

"As elected officials chosen by the public to represent the public in this county, would you not want the public to be as informed as possible of decisions that impact their community as greatly as this?" he asked.

Thornburg said he's observed a pattern of behavior in today's politicians where governmental officials keep agendas hidden until the last minute, then approve plans regardless of public opinion.

"The hope of our representatives representing is bleak. So my question is, are you here to represent the community who is massively against this?"

Orem student Sam Chilton said his generation has lost faith in the system due to government agencies acting reprehensibly, citing allegations of ICE raping detainees and children being separated from families.

"We know you are not on our side and that you do not care about our dignity or our rights and we are disgusted in you," Chilton said.

After all public comments, Smith assured the attendees that nothing had changed with the agreement since the commission last voted on it. The agenda item was just an update required by policy.

"I spoke very clearly about this last time. I will speak very clearly about it this time — we are not pulling anybody off any assigned duties. We are not doing ICE's job," he said.

The sheriff explained there are select deputies who go after the "big crimes" in the community, and "when it intersects with immigration issues, they address those, which they should."

Gordon asked the sheriff if, after almost a year of having this agreement, canceling the contract, "in your law enforcement opinion, would be better for us."

"Absolutely not," Smith responded. He said largely the problems that have occurred with ICE in other cities stemmed from local law enforcement not cooperating with the federal agency.

"But we have a seat at the table and are able to have discussions on how we want things to be done here in Utah County. If you want the chaos that you saw in other cities, then you cancel the contract," he said. "The reality is there are people committing serious crimes in our community that need to be addressed and they should not be allowed to stay in our country or state when they are not citizens."

Beltran said even though the agenda item wasn't meant to be a discussion addressing the contract, "I feel even more comfortable with this contract now, having done it for months, than I did even originally. I think it's been a well-documented success ... our community is getting safer."

The service agreement was approved unanimously by the commission.

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