A Wyoming sheriff who refused to hold onto inmates for federal immigration authorities without a criminal warrant changed course Wednesday, and now will honor civil detention requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Teton County Sheriff Matt Carr will now hold suspected illegal immigrants for up to 48 hours after their scheduled jail release date, at ICE’s request and without a judge-signed warrant, he announced in a Wednesday statement.
Carr’s announcement follows months of controversy, in which U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming, vowed to address Carr’s prior policy of not honoring civil detainers, and ICE said that Carr’s jail had released 103 illegal immigrants before ICE could retrieve them, over a roughly two-year timespan.
Carr’s pivot was announced on the same day a U.S. House of Representatives committee grilled four mayors of major American cities about their supposed sanctuary-city policies.
Also on Wednesday, a Wyoming bill to ban sanctuary city policies in the state cleared both legislative chambers, and now sits on Gov. Mark Gordon’s desk for passage or veto.
But in his statement, Carr linked the change in operations to recent conversations with ICE and with other Wyoming sheriffs.
He “recently met with ICE officials” to review the protocols and legality of the detention requests made by ICE officials under federal law,” says Carr’s statement.
And after speaking with other Wyoming sheriffs – who do honor ICE civil detainers – Carr determined “this action will bring Teton County into consistency with the actions of all of the other Sheriffs in Wyoming.”
Another of the sheriff's priorities, says the statement, is to protect law enforcement officers.
“Sheriff Carr also emphasized through his meetings with ICE that it is imperative to protect the lives and safety of all law enforcement officers involved in apprehending criminals,” the statement says, adding, “his office will not share any information that may put the safety of fellow law enforcement officers in jeopardy while operating in Teton County.”
A Teton-County-based news outlet, the Jackson Hole News and Guide, had reported on an ICE operation in the town Feb. 7 while it was still ongoing, and had named Carr as its source.
In a later interview with Cowboy State Daily, however, Carr said he merely confirmed what the Guide had already ascertained from an ICE operation that was very visible, and which had gained attention on social media.
Safer, But…
ICE prefers to retrieve suspected illegal immigrants within jails, rather than on the streets, which can be more dangerous for everyone including the public, according to the agency’s webpage.
But the extra 48-hour hold is vulnerable to court challenges under the Fourth Amendment, with some courts and attorneys calling them unconstitutional.
That was Carr’s rationale for resisting them in the past.
That’s also the position of Laramie-based immigration attorney Travis Helm.
“ICE detainers have consistently been found to violate our Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable government search and seizures,” Helm told Cowboy State Daily in a Thursday email. Noncitizens have those rights as well, he said. Helm in an earlier court filing had pointed to multiple cases, including Miranda-Olivares v. Clackamas City, in which a court awarded money damages to a woman who’d been subjected to an ICE hold.
“Local law enforcement can only arrest someone if there is probable cause of a criminal offense,” said Helm, adding that holding someone after his jail release date constitutes a new arrest, and requires probable cause.
“When we relax constitutional protections for some, we erode constitutional protections for us all,” said Helm. He later added that the issue has been settled in lower courts and - as far as he's aware - hasn't risen to the level of a U.S. Tenth Circuit ruling that would dictate constitutional terms to Wyoming.
He then challenged Wyoming criminal defense attorneys representing noncitizen clients to “aggressively challenge ICE detainers and sue local law enforcement when appropriate.”
Wyoming State Public Defender Brandon Booth said those kinds of challenges aren’t in public defenders’ purview under the state Public Defender Act.
“As a result, we would have no authority or coverage to raise any perceived issues related to civil ICE holds,” said Booth.
Work Together
John Fabbricatore, who served prior as ICE’s senior executive director for Colorado and Wyoming, told Cowboy State Daily in the past that the civil ICE detainers have always been an issue, but that sheriffs and other local leaders who want to solve illegal immigration problems can find other, more constitutionally-sound ways to work with ICE if they’re truly willing.
For example, sheriffs can inform ICE agents ahead of a person’s scheduled release date in advance.
It is roughly a four-and-a-half hour journey from ICE's Casper outpost to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in good weather.
Sheriffs also can establish a federal detention contract with the agency if they're willing to cooperate, Fabbricatore said.
“While there’s going to be arguments on whether illegal immigration is a crime or not, we have to accept the fact that some people that came in within the last four years are here to commit crimes,” Fabbricatore told Cowboy State Daily in a Thursday interview. “And if we are going to make sure that our communities are safer, it is better to communicate with ICE and cooperate on safe transfers of aliens who have been encountered by law enforcement.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
