Don’t Turn Prisoners Over To ICE, Wayne County Sheriff Orders

DETROIT, MI — Absent an order signed by a federal magistrate or judge, the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office won’t turn over immigrant inmates to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Sheriff Benny Napoleon’s April 28 memo, obtained by The Detroit News, cites constitutional concerns raised in recent court decisions regarding the enforcement immigration detention orders.

The memo says sheriff’s office employees “shall not” honor IDNAs — Immigration Detainer – Notice of Action — from ICE without court orders. Administrative warrants can be ignored, Napoleon said.

“The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office will continue to work with all state, local and federal law enforcement agencies, and will continue to provide professional service to the citizens of Wayne County, regardless of their immigration status,” the memo said.

The detainer requests are typically made when ICE officials think an inmate has violated immigration laws, and they typically ask that the inmate be held for 48 hours after his or her scheduled release so they can be taken into federal custody.

Critics told The Detroit News they think Napoleon, who didn’t respond to the newspaper’s request for comment, is resisting a crackdown on undocumented immigrants by the Trump administration, which has been upfront about plans to deport criminals who don’t have proper papers. Others said the sheriff is correct because at least eight federal judges have ruled since 2014 that holding inmates after their sentences expire is a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Some of those rulings have stipulated that an ICE detainer isn’t enough to establish probable cause.

Detroit Police Chief James Craig, who disagrees with Napoleon’s April 28 memo, told newspaper he doesn’t think undocumented immigrants who have committed violent crimes should be released back to the community.

“I’m sworn to uphold the law, whether it’s local, state or federal,” Craig told the newspaper. “Immigration is never the primary focus of a Detroit police investigation. However, when we make an arrest and fingerprint someone, there’s an automatic notification to federal authorities. We have and will comply and cooperate with federal authorities.”

Immigrant rights advocate Elena Hrranda said the sheriff was “under a lot of pressure” from the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and other groups to institute the policy.

“A lot of the (immigrant Wayne County Jail inmates) were picked up on traffic violations,” she said. “There have been ICE agents hanging around schools, near construction sites and other places trying to (arrest and deport immigrants).”

A report Wednesday by said ICE has arrested 41,300 undocumented immigrants in the 100 days since President Trump signed executive orders that tighten border security and threaten sanctuary cities and counties — Wayne County is not a sanctuary jurisdiction — with loss of federal funding if they don’t cooperate with ICE. That’s a 38 percent increase in arrests from 2016, or about 30,000 more people than during the same period in 2015.

Despite Trump’s hard line on undocumented immigrants, deportations have decreased 12 percent during the period, ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan said in a conference call with reporters to discuss the report. He blamed a backlog of cases in immigration courts and increased enforcement to swiftly send people back home when they cross the Southwest border without proper documentation.

According to the report:

• Nearly 75 percent of those arrested during this period in 2017 are convicted criminals, with offenses ranging from homicide and assault to sexual abuse and drug-related charges.
• The arrest of undocumented workers at-large in the community increased by more than 50 percent, from 8,381 last year to 12,766 arrests this year during the same period.
• The arrest of undocumented workers who are convicted criminals climbed nearly 20 percent, from 25,786 last year to 30,473 this year.
• Violent crimes such as homicide, rape, kidnapping and assault accounted for more than 2,700 convictions.

“These statistics reflect President Trump’s commitment to enforce our immigration laws fairly and across the board. ICE agents and officers have been given clear direction to focus on threats to public safety and national security, which has resulted in a substantial increase in the arrest of convicted criminal aliens,” Homan said in the report. “However, when we encounter others who are in the country unlawfully, we will execute our sworn duty and enforce the law. As the data demonstrates, ICE continues to execute our mission professionally and in accordance with the law, and our communities will be much safer for it.”

(Photo by John Moore/Getty Images News/Getty Images)