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Canyon County, Idaho probation office compiled 82-name foreign-born list, disclosed it to ICE for enforcement targeting

On June 5, 2026, Jeff Breach, director of Canyon County, Idaho's Misdemeanor Probation Department, directed staff to review their caseloads and compile a list of probationers born outside the United States for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Boise field office. Over 140 emails obtained by InvestigateWest show the resulting 82-name list swept in people with no evidence of immigration violations -- more than half on probation for DUI and only seven with an existing ICE hold -- while officers separately coordinated ICE arrests staged at probationers' scheduled appointments.

Jurisdiction
Canyon County
Location
Caldwell, Idaho

Abuses documented

Actors

On June 5, 2026, Jeff Breach, director of Canyon County, Idaho's Misdemeanor Probation Department, emailed his staff instructing them to review their caseloads and identify "offenders who you believe are in the country illegally," so he could compile a list to send to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Boise field office. Over 140 emails obtained by InvestigateWest between May and July 2026 show probation officers complied by combing case-intake forms for place of birth rather than any evidence of immigration status, producing an 82-name list of probationers born outside the United States. More than half, 54%, were on probation for DUI, and only seven of the 82 had an existing ICE hold identifying them for possible deportation.

The emails also show probation officers repeatedly notifying ICE agents of probationers' scheduled check-in times, in at least two instances confirming just before or during an appointment that ICE agents were en route to make an arrest, and in one case supplying a probationer's home address and vehicle description. Breach told InvestigateWest the department has fulfilled similar requests from ICE annually since at least 2008, and that verifying legal status "is within the purview of federal authorities." County officials said they did not know exactly when the practice began.

The disclosure follows a 2019 Idaho Press report that Canyon County's Sheriff's Office instructed jail staff to notify ICE of "all foreign born inmates," sweeping in U.S. citizens, and is distinct from an October 2025 mass immigration raid at a Wilder, Idaho racetrack carried out by a separate multi-agency task force. Immigration attorneys said the probation department's practice of flagging people by birthplace alone, without verifying status, creates a heightened risk of detaining people with legal status, at a time when ICE has arrested green-card holders and pending asylum applicants elsewhere in the country.

Why we recorded this

Equal protection requires government to act on individualized evidence, not group membership. Canyon County, Idaho's Misdemeanor Probation Department sorted its entire supervised population by place of birth -- not legal status or criminal conduct -- and gave the resulting 82-name list to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, sweeping in DUI probationers and others with no documented immigration violation alongside the seven who actually had ICE holds. This archive records a government agency converting routine case-supervision records into an immigration-enforcement dragnet sorted by national origin, eroding the individualized-suspicion standard that is supposed to separate government inquiry from a person's ancestry.

Sources

  1. Idaho county's probation office compiles 'foreign born list' for ICE — InvestigateWest primary accessed August 18, 2026

See also