With a new federal mandate coming from President Donald Trump about taking away federal funding for cities and counties that have a sanctuary status for illegal immigrants, Greene County Sheriff Jack Williams addresses that issue.

He says if a city or county is deemed a sanctuary, that means law enforcement won’t contact the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency about individuals who are in America illegally.

“Greene County’s stance is if we have the room in the jail and we find somebody and ICE wants us to hold them we will. I want to make something very clear, we’re not out looking for illegal persons in Greene County and we’re not looking to arrest. ICE right now is concentrating on illegal immigrants that have criminal histories and it’s severe criminal histories for the most part.”

Sheriff Williams adds that most of the time on traffic stops, they will intervene for ICE is the driver doesn’t have identification and if they speak another language, then they’ll contact ICE and use their interpreters to find out who they are and will hold them until ICE can pick them up.

Williams says because Greene County isn’t a sanctuary, they won’t lose federal funding from Trump’s mandate.