DARTMOUTH, Mass. (WLNE) — The former ICE building at the Bristol County Jail that has been repurposed to service three units within the department could be impacted by President-elect Donald Trump who has announced he wants mass deportations. Bristol County Sheriff Paul Heroux explained why he said he is not interested in bringing in more inmates. “The reason I am not interested is one, we have our own inmates to deal with and we have limited staffing, so to bring more inmates in or detain them in this case would just stretch our resources a little thin.” Heroux said. “The second reason is, this organization has been there and done that. It didn’t go so well for us. It is public knowledge that we are getting sued.” The sheriff said the department is tied up in court with former ICE detainees who have filed a $10 million lawsuit against the sheriff’s office. In 2020, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, who was the Attorney General at the time, found the Bristol County Sheriff’s office violated civil rights of federal immigration detainees while responding to a disturbance on site. The lawsuit came out in April of 2022, and litigation is still going on, according to Heroux. The former ICE building has now been turned into a training academy for recruits, a new office for the K9 unit, and a new office for the special response team. “It’s very exciting to have a permanent home for training where before we had to keep moving around to accommodate office space for others,” Captain Robert Matos said. “Finally having a permanent home where we can focus on training, getting the academies and annual in-service completed.” The first class of recruits to go through training in the new facility is set to graduate next week. “I can see there is a difference even just the environment,” sheriff recruit Deise Alves said. “We have more space to do different types of learning and different types of trainings, we can do it inside and outside. There’s definitely a lot more room for growth.” Sheriff Heroux also said other police departments will be able to use the facilities when the schedule allows them to. Categories: Massachusetts, News