Guam attorney general links up with ICE for immigration crackdown

By Jayvee Vallejera

Eleven criminal investigators at the Office of the Attorney General are now authorized to work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to enforce immigration functions on Guam.

Rodney Sayama, an agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, presented the AG investigators with their federal credential badges on Monday, officially authorizing them to perform immigration enforcement functions in coordination with DHS.

As deputized federal immigration officers, AG criminal investigators will be working with ICE to identify, detain and remove non-U.S. citizens who commit and are convicted of deportable crimes under Guam and federal law.

This comes after a memorandum of agreement Attorney General Douglas Moylan signed with DHS in September last year has now been certified, clearing the way for the 11 AG criminal investigators to be deputized by ICE under its 287(g) Program.

The agreement exponentially increases Guam’s ability “to keep us safe from criminal aliens,” Moylan said.

This also launches what Moylan said is the second phase of his “AG Moylan Purge,” which aims to kick out from Guam convicted migrants and bar them from ever returning to the U.S. territory.

Moylan said the agreement supplements the ongoing involuntary deportation with ICE and the self-deportation program.

“This will end non-U.S. citizen repeat offenders cycling back into our neighborhoods and close the revolving door of ‘catch, release, re-offend cycle’ by evicting them from our island and ending any chance at returning to our streets to harm new crime victims,” he added.

Moylan says this will save the Government of Guam more than $43,070 per alien in prison each year.

"The number of deported criminal aliens is growing weekly. If you hurt us, this AG will use any and all means available to deport you,” the news release said.

Under the agreement, the investigators may identify removable criminal non-citizens who are already in custody and work with Guam ICE to make arrests pursuant to any warrants or detainers.

They are authorized to interrogate anyone believed to be a non-citizen as to their right to be in Guam and to process for immigration violations those who have been arrested for criminal offenses.

They also have the power to arrest, without a warrant, any alien entering or attempting to illegally enter Guam; to arrest without a warrant for felonies; and to serve and execute warrants of arrest for immigration violations—even if they only believe the alien is in Guam illegally.

To prevent abuses, the agreement requires the criminal investigators to use these extra powers only under the direction and supervision of ICE.

Not all criminal investigators of the Office of the Attorney General are authorized to perform these extra functions.

The attorney general must nominate the personnel, who will then undergo ICE training.

The MOA includes a complaint-reporting procedure for any complaint regarding the conduct of a criminal investigator in the performance of immigration enforcement functions.

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