Several immigrant-advocacy groups have now responded to a pointed statement from Knox County Sheriff J.J. Jones Wednesday morning, vowing to enforce federal immigration laws. "We feel disappointed of his poor choice of words," said Kukuly Uriarte, an immigrant living in Knoxville and advocate for immigration reform. After a year of limited statements about 287(g), Sheriff Jones published his opinion on his website Wednesday morning. The note followed a decision from U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, which did not approve the county’s application for the program. ICE cited "resource concerns," including the sequester, as the reason for denying Knox County’s application. "Once again, the federal government has used sequestration as a smokescreen to shirk its responsibilities for providing safety and security to its citizens by denying Knox County the 287(g) corrections model," the sheriff wrote on his website.
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