The Worst of the Worst
January 20, 2025 was a milestone day in the history of the United States. It was the day that Donald Trump was inaugurated into the Presidency for the second time. It was the day that this president, elected on a racist motivated platform to rid the country of non-White migrants and asylum seekers, started a campaign of revenge for being legally denied the 2020 election.
President Trump has often asserted that we need to get rid of “the worst of the worst” of those living here undocumented. Previous to January 20, 2025, the country was actively trying to do exactly that, and it did so pretty effectively. The details are included in a data analysis the West Virginia ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) conducted of ICE detention data. The report compares the 28 months preceding Trump’s second inauguration, when Joe Biden was president, with the 13 months following it.
The key finding of this analysis was that of 429 ICE detentions in WV under Biden 90.4 percent had some prior criminal conviction. Bad guys, at least at some point in their lives. On the other hand, of 593 ICE detentions in WV under Trump only 3.7 percent, 22 people, had criminal convictions. How other to interpret this than that the hard work of identifying and removing the worst of the worst was done by Biden, not Trump.
The majority of ICE arrests and detentions under Trump’s ICE were carried out in a joint venture with West Virginia law enforcement under a program named Operation Country Roads. This was a 15 day sweep in January 2026 that involved a close collaboration of local law enforcement with ICE tactical teams spearheading the operation.
Moore Capito, U.S. Attorney with the Southern District of West Virginia, issued a press release at the end of January, 2026. He said: “Officials identified and arrested individuals illegally residing in the United States who present dangers to national security and risks to public safety” and then “Several of those arrested have serious criminal histories, including convictions for child sex abuse, drug possession and endangering the welfare of children.” However, the ACLU analysis begs to differ. It reports instead: “Records how zero detentions for sexual assault or any crime involving children.” Two drug possession arrests were misdemeanors, not criminal violations. Not by any standard were those detained the worst of the worst.
Capito also credited WV law enforcement officers for their direct involvement in over 550 of those arrested during the operation. These were officers who worked for agencies participating in ICE’s 287(g) program, a majorly expensive effort to get agreements with local agencies to cooperate in ICE operations. Capito documents the participation of several state and local counties in the 287(g) program
Details about the involvement of local law enforcement agencies in 287(g) are hard to come by, but Ken Klippenstein, an independent journalist, released a ledger from an anonymous source inside ICE. The ledger lists as of March 2026 all the state and local agencies participating with ICE. The table below lists those agencies in West Virginia. Two data points are tabulated: the number of local officers who are credentialed as ICE credentialed and the total amount of money each agency is authorized to receive for its participation.
|
287(g) Service Participant |
Credentialed Task Force Officers (TFO) |
Total Estimated Payment |
| Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office |
16 |
$305,000.00 |
| Cabell County Sheriff’s Office |
20 |
$327,500.00 |
| Clearview Village Police Department |
2 |
$125,000.00 |
| Hampshire County Sheriff’s Office |
1 |
$107,500.00 |
| Harrison County Sheriff’s Office |
8 |
$260,000.00 |
| Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office |
33 |
$902,500.00 |
| Morgan County Sheriff’s Office |
12 |
$782,500.00 |
| Oak Hill Police Department |
1 |
$107,500.00 |
| Summersville Police Department |
10 |
$175,000.00 |
| West Virginia State Police |
7 |
$402,500.00 |
| Grand Total |
110 |
$3,495,000.00 |
As the list shows, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office is the largest participant in the program with 33 officers credentialed. Its participation amounts to estimated payments of close to a million dollars. What is unclear is how much the Office has actually received. The overarching question, though, is why Jefferson County, with its small immigrant population, needs the involvement of the majority of its county law enforcement trained to monitor it.
This is a big boost to a department subject to the salary constraints imposed by the state on public servants living in high cost-of-living counties, like ours in the Eastern Panhandle. What’s not clear is how that million dollars is allocated within the Sheriff’s Office. What’s also not clear is what Sheriff Thomas Hansen’s motivation was for collaborating with ICE. Why does our county and our state, with the second lowest immigrant population in the United States, feel we have to cooperate with ICE?
