Sanctuary State: Washington County Sheriff Defends Decision Not To Help ICE

HILLSBORO, OR – Washington County Sheriff Pat Garrett has chosen to follow state law over federal executive orders.

Following the March 20 release of the Department of Homeland Security's Declined Detainer Outcome Report, which highlights weekly the law enforcement agencies that chose not to comply with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers and requests for notification, Garrett issued a statement of his own explaining why he’s made the choice to instead honor state law mandating that Oregon law enforcement not work with ICE.

"The Declined Detainer Outcome Report does not accurately describe the difficulties or potential legal ramifications associated with honoring ICE detainer requests," Garrett said, citing specifically a 3-year-old ruling from Clackamas County.

In April 2014, Garrett said, a U.S. District Court of Oregon judge ruled that the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office violated Maria Miranda-Olivares' constitutional rights when it honored an ICE detainer request, which Garrett said ultimately cost county taxpayers more than $100,000 in lawyer fees and restitution.

Arrested for violating a restraining order, Miranda-Olivares was granted bail the same day jail officials received the ICE detainer. And though Miranda-Olivares indicated she could pay her bail for release, jail officers did not immediately allow her to leave. They instead chose to honor the ICE detainer request to hold her, keeping her through the court process for her restraining order violation, which for first time offenses (not involving a stalking order) is a Class B misdemeanor carrying with it a potential sentence of up to six months in prison and fines up to $2,500, according to Oregon Law.

After pleading guilty to the violation, Miranda-Olivares was sentenced to 48 hours in jail, with credit for time served. Yet it was two weeks after initially being granted bail that she was finally released. A judge then determined Miranda-Olivares' Fourth Amendment rights had been violated.

"The Clackamas County court ruling led Washington County, along with every other county in Oregon, to immediately stop honoring ICE detainer requests," Garrett said. "Washington County informed ICE officials that it will honor any warrant or court order to detain a person … (but) will continue to follow the court's clear guidance that these detainer requests are unconstitutional."

Executive Order

Signed Jan. 25, President Donald Trump's Executive Order, "Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States," requires ICE to issue weekly reports highlighting agencies across the nation that do not honor detainer requests.

Between Jan. 28 and Feb. 3, ICE issued more than 3,000 detainers to agencies across the country.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, agencies that choose not to cooperate are "potentially endangering Americans."

"When law enforcement agencies fail to honor immigration detainers and release serious criminal offenders, it undermines ICE's ability to protect the public safety and carry out its mission,' said acting ICE Director Thomas Homan. "Our goal is to build cooperative, respectful relationships with our law enforcement partners. We will continue collaborating with them to help ensure that illegal aliens who may pose a threat to our communities are not released onto the streets to potentially harm individuals living within our communities."

The report released March 20 indicated that Washington County has seven such cases of not honoring detainer requests, but WCSO Undersheriff Jeff Mori isn’t sure where that number came from.

"We're not sure if we even received seven," Mori told Patch Tuesday. "I don’t know if that's even a valid number. I'm not saying it's wrong, we just didn’t keep track. We got some legwork to do."

The trouble is, Mori said, the sheriff's office isn't in the habit of filing away ICE requests it has no intention of honoring in the first place. So whether seven requests have been issued to Washington County is a question Mori is trying to answer.

The report also acknowledged 21 other Oregon county law enforcement agencies –– including Multnomah and Clackamas counties –– that have indicated non-compliance with the executive order, though it did not indicate those agencies had deliberately ignored any specific requests.

"We need to maintain good working relationships with all our (law enforcement) partners, but we're not in the business of immigration (enforcement)," Mori explained. "We won’t prevent (ICE), but we won’t be involved either. Our job as law enforcement officers, most importantly, is defending freedoms … we are here to help people."

Sheriff Garrett, who is also president of the Oregon State Sheriff's Association, said just as much in a statement released Jan. 27 –– two days after Trump signed his ICE-related executive order.

"The executive order signed by the president does not directly affect Oregon law enforcement officers ­­–– it is binding only upon federal agencies," Garrett wrote. "For the time being, Oregon sheriffs are bound to follow state law, which currently only allows exchange of information with ICE when a foreign-born person is arrested. Oregon sheriffs are also required to follow local ordinances enacted by their county governing bodies. Each Sheriff in Oregon is elected by the people and stands ready to answer law enforcement questions you may have about your county."

Photo Courtesy: Kathy Bose, Washington County Sheriff's Office