Police, ICE, and Knox County: A Timeline of the 287(g) and Detention Bed Contracts from 2017-2021

The Knox County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) continues to heavily collaborate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in spite of the consistent community opposition and ongoing legal ramifications that have resulted from Knox County’s 287(g) and detention bed contracts. Research on these programs and Knox County’s immigration enforcement involvement has largely focused on the logistics of enforcement mechanisms, the racism and xenophobia that construct the programs, and the legal challenges Knox County has faced as a result of their execution of the contracts. This creative project accumulates this research and utilizes public records received from Public Records Act and Freedom of Information Act requests, minutes from city and county governmental meetings, legal documents, news articles, and social media posts to construct a digital timeline of Knox County’s 287(g) and detention bed programs from 2017 to 2021. Assembled on an easy to use, publicly accessible website, it aims to increase public access to this information and centralize the information for those focused on getting involved with efforts to build opposition to the programs.

This project was completed under the supervision of Dr. Todd Freeberg.