All right, good evening, everyone.

Um, welcome to our September Commission meeting.

Um, Lexi, can you do role?

Yes, I can.

Amy Odiza Presente Carlos de Harano.

Here, Chris Chavez, Jackie Sonzalez here, Jose Balaca, Mimi Martinez Herrera, Patsima Linares, Jessica Lozano Alvarez, Mark Onesors in a suit.

Diana Pennington.

Amanda Petagrina, but his name.

Angelica Reina, Riley Howard, Andy Little, Ladiana Sanchez.

Wonderful.

Okay.

Um, all right, we have a lot to cover today, so let's go ahead and take a moment to review the meeting minutes and get those approved.

So let's just take a moment to review the notes from the August meeting, and then when inspired, can we get a motion to approve?

Madam Chair, I said move.

A second.

Okay, we have a motion, we have a second.

We'll go ahead and vote.

All those in favor of approving the minutes.

Hi.

Any opposition.

Abstentions.

Okay.

Minutes are approved.

Thank you.

So today we are welcoming Sheriff Vic Regolado with us today.

We're really excited to hear from you and learn more about a lot of the activities going on.

Um with your department.

Um, just to speak very briefly about what the commission does.

So currently, our commission um, we have a few subcommittees that um work to really support our communities in staying engaged and informed, and a lot of issues that impact our communities.

So we have an immigration subcommittee led by Amy Education Committee led by Fatima community advocacy, which I do, and a health public safety that Chris does, and um a business engagement subcommittee that's new, that Jose is working on.

So we're looking forward to just hearing more from you and getting some clarification on a lot of the um things we've been hearing about.

Um we also want to position ourselves really as a trusted resource.

You know, a lot of what we strive to do with the county is be a voice and help uh the county understand like what's going on in community, and so we are looking at this as kind of a um reigniting the dynamic and opening communication and just being a resource for you because a lot of us are very um active in community, and so we'd love to just make sure that we have you know an ongoing relationship and can look to you as a resource, and you can look to us as as people that can get um updates out and clarify anything.

So I know that we had given you some potential talking points.

Um I don't know if you'd like to take 10 to speak to them, and then we have some questions, or if you want us to just jump into questions.

Well, no, I'll start off with well, first of all, thank you for having us.

Um I enjoy coming to these things, and I do a lot of them over the last 10 and a half years that I've been in office, and the reason I like coming to them is to separate fact from fiction.

And unfortunately, with social media, we all know that things get out there, and and people tend to believe what they read and or hear in TikTok and SNAP and whatever social media outlets there are.

Um, and oftentimes uh that's the wrong information, sometimes it's accidentally wrong, and sometimes it's actually people putting information out there to create fear and fear mongering, and all that does is create fear within our a lot of our vulnerable communities, uh, and it also creates a problem with us.

And so, again, thank you for allowing me to come here.

And I do hope that we leave here today, and you have a better understanding of what our role is and isn't in immigration enforcement, and that I can answer any questions that uh any of you may have, and uh and hopefully again uh I do appreciate the invitation to use you as a resource, and the same here because we've been very successful, believe it or not, with our immigrant communities because of the effort that we put in in communication, and so I get calls all the time from people in the community, um, especially when things come up, and I'll just recent stories uh in regards to our role in immigration, and they'll call, they call me, they'll call uh my deputies, and they'll go, Hey, is this true?

And we've been able to, you know, before things truly explode, we've been able to keep those down with truth, and um and so again I I appreciate this opportunity.

So let me start with the background because I'm not sure everybody understands what 287G is and isn't.

So, first and foremost, 287G is a partnership with ICE.

Um, Tulsa County Sheriff's Office does have the longest running 287G program in the state.

Um over the years it has changed.

Uh the previous administration uh would actively engage in immigration enforcement.

When I took office, I made it very clear and still do to this day that local law enforcement should not engage in immigration, federal immigration enforcement, and I'll talk about why here in a moment.

Um so we don't do that.

Our 287G program by and large is behind the walls of Tulsa County jail.

We have certified detention officers, not deputies, detention officers that have been trained, have gone through a two-week course to be certified to run that 287G program.

And essentially, in the nutshell version, what happens is if you are arrested, you're here undocumented, you enter into our jail under state or even municipal charges.

Our 287G detention officers will question you and determine uh your citizenship status.

If you're here undocumented, then a detainer is placed on you, and what that means is that you can't bond out, and you have to address your local charges first.

Once you've dressed those charges, then you're in the custody of immigration customs enforcement.

From that point, you're afforded immigration court, and then it's up to the court uh whether or not you get deported, or you get uh bonded out, or you know, they give you a visa.

I mean, there's there's a litany of things that can happen in immigration court, um, and to which I can't speak to all of it, but those are just some examples of what can happen.

So now three weeks ago we were approached by ICE about a task force, and uh this task force is for it allows deputies to be certified as well, and they can uh engage in in removal processes.

We do not do that.

What we do is and what we're utilizing it for is for our deputies that are assigned to Homeland Security who engage in criminal organizations, criminal investigations, and to our interdiction unit, which is about seven off the deputies.