(Story courtesy of WVLT News)

Knoxville, TN (WVLT) The Knox County Commission passed an honorary resolution on Monday recognizing the Knox County Sheriff’s Office’s partnership with the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

KCSO participates in the 287(g) program, which offers federal dollars in exchange for helping ICE enforce U.S. immigration laws. Knox County has participated in the program since 2017, but its commitment has received more attention recently because of an increase in immigration detainees in the county over the past year.

KCSO booked nearly 400 immigration detainees in April alone, a huge jump from about 60 last October. The increase is one of the reasons Commissioner Andy Fox detailed in the resolution he felt should be recognized.

The resolution also says, “the Commission urges continued collaboration between the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, ICE and other federal and state agencies to uphold public safety and enforce immigration laws.”

“I hope that the Sheriff’s Department continues to be involved in this program,” Fox said at the meeting on Monday. “In fact, I hope this program gets expanded.”

The resolution also applauds the work of deputies. Commissioner Angela Russell said that was a reason she supported the measure.

“This isn’t a matter of us choosing what we want done,” Russell said. “This is a matter of, ‘Do we support the poor boys? Like in Vietnam? Who are having to go and do this job?”

Three commissioners voted against the resolution. Commissioner Courtney Durrett, who voted no, said Sheriff Tom Spangler asked on ‘several occasions’ for the resolution to be removed.

“Sheriff Spangler didn’t see it as necessary or helpful and communicated that to Commissioner Fox. The resolution has no bearing on the men and women doing their jobs. Sheriff will continue cooperation with ICE under the 287(g) MOU,” a representative with KCSO said in a statement.

Commissioner Damon Rawls brought up concerns about the strain of the contract on local resources.

“It talks about the rising number of detainees as this mark of success, but for those numbers, those numbers carry a cost,” Rawls said. “They carry a cost to our detention facility. They carry a cost to the sheriff’s executing that programmatic cost.”

A WVLT Investigation found ICE pays the county a fee each day they house an inmate, but the fee doesn’t cover the full cost. From October 2024 to April 2025, the county paid more than $150,000 to house ICE inmates.

At the time of that investigation, a representative with KCSO said Sheriff Tom Spangler had no plans to discontinue the contract.