The Rockingham County Sheriff's Office has announced it will help federal authorities ramp up the deportation of immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally.

Sheriff Sam Page says his department will be the first in North Carolina to opt into a federal program assisting Homeland Security to deport undocumented immigrants.

The News & Record reports the program will allow officers at the Rockingham County Detention Center to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement by serving ICE federal arrest warrants on inmates. The prisoners could then be transferred directly into ICE custody.

In a news conference Wednesday, Page said the officers would only work within the jail, and would not be operating out in the community.

A number of activist groups, including the ACLU, have expressed their opposition to the federal program, saying it leads to illegal racial profiling and civil rights abuses.