No New Jersey Towns Make ICE's Controversial ‘Declined Detainer’ List

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has published its first list of immigrants charged or convicted of crimes and later released by local authorities, and no New Jersey towns or counties have been named so far this year, according to the report.

On Monday, the federal agency released its first weekly "Declined Detainer Outcome Report," which contains 206 "detainers" declined to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency between Jan. 28 and Feb. 3.

Such detainers compel participating jurisdictions to hold people who are arrested and suspected of being undocumented immigrants for a period of at least 48 hours (longer on weekends or holidays). This holding period allows ICE agents sufficient time to retrieve the arrestees and proceed with deportations, authorities say.

However, some towns and counties are refusing to assist the federal agency in its task, “potentially endangering Americans,” according to the ICE report.

While the largest numbers of declined detainers came from states such as Nevada (51), New York (47) and Iowa (17), none were listed in New Jersey, according to the report.

The list is likely not a complete representation of all local opposition to ICE detainer requests. According to ICE, state, county and local law enforcement agencies don’t generally tell the agency when they decline a detainer. As such, the list only represents the detainers that ICE personnel have become aware of during enforcement activities.

Several individual counties and towns in New Jersey that are not named in the ICE report have enacted legislation that says they will not cooperate with some of the federal agency’s policies and detainer requests.

• See related article: Maplewood 1st N.J. Town To Offer Immigrants ‘Sanctuary’ In 2017
• See related article: South Orange Offers Immigrants Sanctuary, Passes Resolution (PHOTOS)
• See related article: Montclair Adopts ‘Welcoming Community’ Resolution To Protect Immigrants
• See related article: Bloomfield Welcomes Immigrants With ‘Sanctuary-Style’ Resolution

The report also states that several ICE jurisdictions in New Jersey have "enacted policies that limit their cooperation with the agency," including:

• Ocean County
• Union County
• Middlesex County
• City of Newark

For example, the Ocean County Department of Corrections Policy will only honor an ICE detainer request if the individual has certain indictable offenses or is charged with eluding an officer or tampering with witnesses, the report states.

In Union County, law enforcement officials will not honor an ICE detainer "without a warrant, court order or other legally sufficient proof of probable cause."

ARREST AND RELEASE?

Telegraphed during Donald Trump's first address to Congress earlier this month, the list purports to show a criminal scourge by undocumented residents, highlighting the nationalities of those listed.

In an analysis of the DHS data by Univision, nearly 70 percent of the immigrants on the list are from Mexico, and more than 95 percent are from Latin American countries (Honduras being the most frequent country of origin listed).

While the list appears to paint a dangerous arrest-and-release pattern, it reportedly includes a largely Latino compilation of people who have yet to be convicted, reports say.

Critics of this technique have pointed to its flaws by omission, given that all arrested persons in the U.S., regardless of their ethnicity or citizenship status, are also released once arrested for lesser crimes as part of their constitutionally guaranteed right to due process.

Representatives with the U.S. Conference of Mayors said that the organization has “serious concerns” about the ICE report.

“ICE states that by not cooperating with its detainers or requests for notification, jurisdictions are ‘potentially endangering Americans,’” U.S. Conference of Mayors CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran stated.

“This promotes the false narrative that immigrants are criminals when studies have shown that the incidence of criminality is less among immigrants than among the native-born population, and recent research has shown that communities with so-called ‘sanctuary’ policies are safer than those without them,” Cochran said.

• See related article: Will Newark's 'Sanctuary' Stance On Immigration Draw Trump's Wrath?

The report lists jurisdictions as non-compliant that are currently complying with federal law, including the City of New Orleans, the Conference of Mayors stated.

In addition, the report ignores the Constitutional requirement under the 4th Amendment that there be a warrant for a jurisdiction to hold someone who would otherwise be released, and ignores due process in the more than half of the cases cited, the group asserts.

The report is issued pursuant to Executive Order 13768 (“Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the U.S.”) and section H of the Secretary of Homeland Security memo “Enforcement of the Immigration Laws to Serve the National Interest.”

Send feedback to eric.kiefer@patch.com

With additional reporting by Tony Cantu (Patch Staff)

Photo: ICE.gov