States are telling sheriffs whether they can — or can’t — work with ICE

By Tim Henderson Stateline org Local sheriffs are on the front lines in deciding whether to participate in the Trump administration s mass deportation plans But states increasingly are making the choice for them More and more sheriffs hands are tied no matter whether they do or don t want to help with deportations though they often get the blame when conservatives draw up lists of sanctuary cities Naughty lists as we call them are not super helpful here noted Patrick Royal a spokesperson for the National Sheriffs Association We all know there are places like Colorado where you can t help with deportations and places like North Carolina where you have to Cooperation between sheriffs and U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement lies at the heart of the Trump administration s immigration detention approach The administration plans to punish noncooperative jurisdictions with funding cuts though multiple legal experts agree that cooperation is voluntary unless state or local laws say otherwise Sheriffs who typically run local jails must decide what to do when faced with immigration detainers requests from ICE to hold onto incarcerated people up to two extra days so ICE officers can show up and arrest them ICE issues those detainers when the agency reviews fingerprints sent electronically for background checks as part of the jail booking process Otherwise arrested individuals who post bond or are otherwise circulated by a judge might go free despite their immigration status prompting ICE in specific cases to pursue them in the society In North Carolina Sheriff Garry McFadden ran on a platform of limiting cooperation with ICE when he was elected in Mecklenburg County home to Charlotte in But the present day McFadden must comply with detainers because of a state law passed last year In a now-retracted Facebook post U S Sen Thom Tillis in late April accused Mecklenburg and several other North Carolina counties of shielding criminal illegal immigrants as sanctuary jurisdictions Tillis a North Carolina Republican revealed in the post he was writing federal rule to prosecute sanctuary jurisdictions You can t say we re a sanctuary county and have state laws that say we have to work with ICE You can t have both McFadden stated He added that he d like more choice about whether to comply with detainers A federal funding cutoff would endanger crucial jail programs such as rape counseling he explained Everybody s focused on immigration like that s the biggest fire and nobody wants to address the other things The losers will be the prisoners who need all these services we provide McFadden commented Conservative sheriffs in Democratic-controlled states also can be frustrated by state strategy on detainers Sheriff Lew Evangelidis of Worcester County Massachusetts revealed he s been criticized for releasing prisoners sought by ICE but sometimes has no choice A state Supreme Court ruling prohibits holding prisoners based on detainers If they ICE want this person and consider them a threat to society safety then I want that person out of my neighborhood I want to keep my public safe declared Evangelidis He supported a Republican-sponsored effort in the state legislature to allow -hour holds for ICE if a judge determines the prisoner is a threat to constituents safety but the amendment was voted down in April States act on detainers A large number of experts agree that ICE detainers can be legally ignored if states allow sheriffs to do that That detainer request is just that a request it s not a requirement mentioned Cassandra Charles a staff attorney at the National Immigration Law Center which is opposing Louisiana s lawsuit to reverse a court-ordered ban on cooperation between Orleans Parish and ICE The general counsel for the North Carolina Sheriffs Association Eddie Caldwell agreed that the detainers are voluntary under federal law The association supports a state bill now under consideration that would require not only the -hour detention but also a notice sent hours before release to let ICE know the clock is running The proposal has passed the House The notification matters Caldwell reported because there can be criminal proceedings that take weeks or months so ICE in countless cases doesn t realize the -hour window has started Tillis office announced the senator s disagreement with McFadden a Democrat and other sheriffs is about that notification It s not necessarily that sheriffs are latest the law but rather making it as complex as practicable for ICE to take prisoners into custody by refusing to do selected basic things Notification is vital disclosed Daniel Keylin a senior adviser to Tillis States including California Colorado and Massachusetts ban compliance with the ICE detainers on the general principle that it s not enough reason to hold people in jails when they re otherwise free to go because of bail or an end to their criminal cases Those three states have made fresh moves to defend or fine-tune their rules California s attorney general also has issued guidance to local jurisdictions based on a state law limiting cooperation with immigration bureaucrats That law withstood a court challenge under the first Trump administration Colorado has a law against holding prisoners more than six hours longer than required and a new bill sent to Democratic Gov Jared Polis last week would specify that even those six hours can t be for the purpose of an immigration detainer Iowa Tennessee and Texas are among the states requiring cooperation with detainers And Florida has gone further requiring sheriffs to actively help ICE write detainers though official agreements in which local agencies sign up to help enforce immigration laws Cooperation boosts arrests Such cooperation makes a big difference experts say jails are the easiest place to pick up immigrants for deportation and when local sheriffs and police help out there are more arrests A larger share of ICE arrests and deportations are happening in places where local law enforcement is cooperative with ICE commented Julia Gelatt associate director for the Migration Plan Institute s U S Immigration Plan Effort speaking at a current webinar A declining share of arrests and deportations are happening from places like California where there are really strict limitations on local law enforcement s cooperation with ICE she added ICE is making about immigration arrests daily twice the rate as during the last year of the Biden administration disclosed Muzaffar Chishti an attorney and framework expert at the Migration Agenda Institute speaking at the same event Reports on deportations are incomplete Chishti revealed but he estimated the current administration is on track to deport half a million people this year and is trying to get that number higher The Trump administration has not been able to change the laws that are on the books because only Congress can do that Chishti disclosed It s going to take congressional action for the Trump administration to achieve its aim of higher arrest and deportation numbers Related Articles Moody s strips U S authorities of top credit rating citing Washington s failure to rein in debt DHS asks for National Guard troops for immigration roundups Pentagon reviewing request Situation of brain-dead pregnant woman kept on life patronage in Georgia raises tricky questions House Republicans include a -year ban on US states regulating AI in big beautiful bill Federal judge strikes down workplace protections for transgender workers President Donald Trump has added more pressure last month requesting a list from Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Safeguard Secretary Kristi Noem of sanctuary cities which he says would face funding cuts The administration also has sued specific states including Colorado Illinois and New York over their policies Petitioned for comment on the legality of funding cutoffs for sanctuary policies Bondi s office referred to a February memo in which she promised to end funding to state and local jurisdictions that unlawfully interfere with federal law enforcement operations The memo cites a federal law saying local administrators may not prohibit or in any way restrict communication about immigration status Local jurisdictions in Connecticut Minnesota New Mexico Oregon and Washington joined a February lawsuit led by the city and county of San Francisco and Santa Clara County in California against a Trump administration executive order calling for defunding cities with sanctuary policies calling the order illegal and authoritarian In April a U S district court in California issued a preliminary injunction in that situation preventing any funding cutoff over sanctuary policies to the cities and counties in the lawsuit And on Friday the federal judge William Orrick ruled that the injunction applies to any list of sanctuary jurisdictions the administration may target for funding cuts Trump s new executive order seeking the list cannot be used as an end run around Orrick s injunction the judge wrote while he decides the legality of detainer policies and other issues The litigation may not proceed with the coercive threat to end all federal funding hanging over the Cities and Counties heads like the sword of Damocles Orrick wrote Stateline reporter Tim Henderson can be reached at thenderson stateline org States Newsroom Visit at stateline org Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC