A self-reported birthplace field on a criminal intake form carries no immigration status information. Canyon County, Idaho's misdemeanor probation department used exactly that field to compile a list of foreign-born probationers handed to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to more than 140 emails covering May through July 2026, obtained by InvestigateWest.
The emails show how the data pipeline assembled itself. In early June, department director Jeff Breach emailed his staff asking them to identify offenders they believed were in the country illegally, because ICE had requested such a list. The resulting submissions from at least some officers went wider than that instruction. Brandon Black, a Canyon County probation officer, wrote back to Breach on June 8: "That's everyone in my cabinet that filled out an intake form and stated not born in US." Another officer, Justin Donovan, identified a single individual he thought might be undocumented, based partly on the man having presented a Mexican ID at his last arrest. Foreign birth alone does not establish unlawful presence; naturalized U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents are, by definition, foreign-born.
Where the list sits in the enforcement stack
Of the people ultimately included, only seven carried an ICE hold, meaning federal authorities had already flagged them independently. More than half of the full list were on probation for driving under the influence. Five were serving probation for drug-related offenses, nine for disturbing the peace. Breach told InvestigateWest that ICE agents attended one or two probation check-in appointments per month over the preceding three months.
The operational coordination ran closer than a data exchange. Senior probation officer Norma Naranjo emailed six ICE agents on May 13 to flag that a probationer would be at his regular appointment the next morning at 7:30 a.m. When the man arrived early the following day, she contacted the agents again to ask if they were on their way. In at least one case, a probation officer also gave ICE the home address and vehicle description of a probationer.
Nikki Ramirez-Smith, an immigration attorney at Ramirez-Smith Law in Nampa, Idaho, described the foreign-born list as "an invasion of privacy" and drew a line between targeting confirmed undocumented individuals and sweeping up everyone who reported a foreign birthplace. Alycia Moss, an immigration attorney at Fennemore Law in Coeur d'Alene, told InvestigateWest that ICE agents should know whether a listed individual is deportable but may still move on people with legal status.
Breach said verifying legal status is the federal government's job, and that his department coordinates with ICE the same way it would with any law enforcement partner. Steve Cushman, director of constituent services for Canyon County, said his understanding is that the list-sharing practice goes back to the Obama administration.
The county has been here before. After a 2019 directive to the sheriff's office to flag all foreign-born jail inmates, Canyon County faced three lawsuits and settled with at least one man for $13,000.