The Obama administration’s immigration enforcement efforts have been nothing if not beleaguered, pleasing no one on either side of the political spectrum while being particularly harsh on individuals and families in the country illegally. Under a program known as Secure Communities, federal immigration officials have been asking for cooperation from local law enforcement in determining detainees’ immigration status. The landscape is changing dramatically in Colorado – and elsewhere – and La Plata County is among the localities to have stopped the practice in the past weeks. It is a wholly positive move for law-enforcement and community safety.
The cooperation between local law enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement involved county sheriffs being asked to hold people they have arrested for an additional 48 hours while ICE determined the detainee’s immigration status. Previously, federal law required sheriffs to cooperate with ICE’s detention policy. That language changed, and it became a matter of choice – one that, if exercised, could leave sheriffs liable for Fourth Amendment violations because those immigration-related detentions were not authorized by an arrest warrant. Three federal court decisions this year affirmed the problem with ICE detentions, and counties are being asked to stop the practice.
La Plata County has done so. Sheriff Duke Schirard said that after learning last week of the changing legal landscape surrounding the detentions, he asked county attorney Sheryl Rogers for an opinion. Rogers concurred with the finding that the immigration detainers are not sufficient to hold people beyond the time it takes to settle a given local warrant. The practice ended immediately, Schirard said.
“Once you really get to thinking about it, that’s what the Constitution protects against,” he said. “We have no problem with that whatsoever.”
Schirard said the policy change meant that between six and eight people who were being held on ICE detentions at the La Plata County jail would not remain in jail longer than the time it took to adjudicate their local matters.
The ICE detention practice has drawn criticism for its implications for community safety, as well as the constitutional question about warrantless detentions in general. Domestic-violence victims, in particular, have faced treacherous ordeals wherein calls for help to the police resulted in ICE detentions. That risk was surely sufficient to prevent those needing help from seeking it, fearing they might find themselves detained. Safety suffers as a result – for people and the larger community.
Colorado’s counties have been incredibly responsive to the news that ICE holds do not pass legal muster, with at least 16 of 64 agreeing to end the detentions in the last two weeks. La Plata County is among the counties quick to change their ways. Schirard deserves credit for his fast remedy of this bad practice. The Obama administration would be wise to stop asking local law enforcement for the favor.
