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At least three Jackson people have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement following Monday arrests, according to the Sweetwater County jail roster.
Court records show Wyoming Highway Patrol arrested two Jackson residents, Jose Aranda Pina and Misael Galicia Leon, for driving under the influence on July 19. The third man listed, Alberto Banicescu, did not have state charges listed and did not show up in Teton County court filings. All three show up as “ICE holds” in the Sweetwater record.
The arrests add to the over 50 people who have been picked up from the Teton County jail since early March. The agency transfers inmates from Teton County’s jail to a holding facility a few times a week, according to Teton County Sheriff Matt Carr.
But several community members have described to KHOL witnessing unmarked vehicles on Monday and Tuesday that match descriptions from reports of ICE vehicles out of Pinedale. KHOL was unable to independently confirm these vehicles were ICE.
ICE officers had, however, alerted Carr on Monday that they would be pursuing “targeted individuals” this week in Teton County. The sheriff said he did not have details, like how many people would be targeted, how many agents would be in town and for how long.
ICE’s presence marks a departure from the less visible approach the federal agency has more recently taken in Teton County. This week’s operation is the first known case of ICE on the ground in Teton County outside of its jail pick-ups since February.
That’s according to Rosie Read, legal director of the Wyoming Immigrant Advocacy Project.
“We don’t tend to see workplace raids here, and ICE hasn’t been using targeted enforcement in our community much this year,” she said in an email. She said reports to her office suggest this week’s activity was “substantial” by comparison.
ICE officials did not return a request for comment.
Teton County’s “in-community” operations appear to be part of a larger operation that runs through a western corridor of the state, from Teton County in the north to Sweetwater County in the south.
As many as 14 ICE agents were staying at a Sublette County hotel in Pinedale as of July 22, according to Cali O’Hare, the editor of the Pinedale Roundup. O’Hare said she confirmed agents by asking around at the hotel where she saw unmarked Ford Explorers and Expeditions with Colorado and Wyoming plates and barricades on the backseat. She said they left the hotel on the morning of July 23 and were headed north to Jackson.
Sublette County Sheriff spokesperson Lt. Travis Bingham said his office had not been notified that ICE would be operating in his county this week, but that the department has a strong relationship with the agency that “has not changed” in his over 15 years of service.
The people she has identified as officers were in plain clothes. O’Hare said this was the first time since Trump’s inauguration that ICE has had a visible “presence” in Pinedale.
Sweetwater County’s detention center has become a holding facility for those arrested by ICE, often before being transferred to Aurora, Colorado or if Aurora is at capacity, according to immigration experts. The county recently embarked on a closer relationship with ICE to accept detainees from Teton, Lincoln and Sublette Counties.
