Editor’s Note: This report was written by Lisa Mills.

The Prairie County Sheriff’s Office has reached an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under which the county jail could house federal immigration detainees for $70 per inmate per day.

Sheriff-elect Jeffrey Bokker shared details of the agreement during a Prairie County Quorum Court meeting Oct. 13.

Bokker said the agreement was reached in part because Interstate 40 runs through Prairie County. No ICE detainees have been held at the jail, and there was no discussion of an anticipated need to house any.

The agreement comes as the Trump administration has intensified immigration enforcement nationwide, including in agricultural communities. Federal officials have said enforcement operations have targeted immigrants with criminal records or deportation orders, while agricultural industry groups have warned the activity has disrupted food production.

Bokker, who currently serves as a sheriff’s deputy, also reported signing a separate ICE agreement that would reimburse the office for expenses related to welfare checks on minors to ensure they have food, shelter and access to education. The checks will not involve arrests, he said.

In other business, the Quorum Court approved an ordinance authorizing the disposal of two computers from the county treasurer’s office, valued at a combined $2,300, as scrap.

Another ordinance authorized the transfer of nearly $15,400 from a sustained traffic enforcement program grant to the sheriff’s overtime fund.

The court also approved the annual property tax levy for real and personal property, with no changes to existing rates.