Buncombe County's new progressive Sheriff says his office will no longer honor detainer requests from federal Immigration Customs Enforcement. Sheriff Quentin Miller made the announcement last week.
From the Asheville Citizen-Times:
"The sheriff's office will continue to comply with all applicable state and federal laws, however, we do not make or enforce immigration laws; that is not part of our law enforcement duties," Miller said.
"It is vital that members of our immigrant community can call the sheriff's office without fear when they are in need of assistance from law enforcement."
The pro-immigration American Immigration Council notes the detainer requests are voluntary for local law enforcement agencies, and requires probable cause:
In order to issue a detainer, ICE is supposed to have probable cause that the individual is deportable. For example, a detainer could be issued if the person has a final order of deportation or is in removal proceedings, or if ICE has other evidence or confirmation that the person is deportable.
The presence of a detainer is not indicative of an individual’s immigration status. Further, detainers do not initiate deportation proceedings and do not signify whether or not a person will be deported.
But ACLU says the detainers violate peoples' rights, "ICE’s use of detainers to imprison people without due process and, in many cases, without any charges pending or probable cause of any violation has raised serious constitutional concerns."
As local law enforcement agencies try to stymie federal law enforcement agencies, we should expect to see more federal agents operating locally.
ICE spokesman Bryan Cox told the Citizen Times on Tuesday that "as a direct result of this policy, persons in Asheville will see an increased presence of ICE."
The sheriff's new policy effectively prevents ICE from being able to take somebody into custody from the county jail for having violated immigration laws, Cox said.
Coincidentally, this weekend I got a letter from the Buncombe Sheriff asking me for money.
It's obviously a form letter from the NC Sheriff's Association, but I was struck by this portion of the plea:
Does refusing to help federal law enforcement fall under the category of "ongoing negative attention from groups opposing law enforcement"?
Pete's Prep: Monday, March 4, 2019
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- There's a perfectly reasonable explanation why Rep. Ilhan Omar sounds like an anti-Semite. It's because she is.
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