tennessean.com
Written by Josh Adams
The Tennessean
4:07 AM, Jan. 3, 2012

Immigrants suspected of living in the U.S. illegally are routinely taken into custody by sheriff’s office deputies in Williamson County, according to a federal lawsuit, despite the agency’s having no authority to make such arrests.

Attorney Elliott Ozment, who specializes in immigration law, filed the claim in mid-December on behalf of five plaintiffs who were taken into custody by the sheriff’s office in 2011. Each individual was given a misdemeanor traffic citation for driving without a license, Ozment said, then taken into custody when he or she later appeared at the county jail for pretrial booking.

“Essentially, the sheriff’s office is making an immigration arrest,” Ozment said. “They’re not being arrested for not having a driver’s license.”

Ozment said public records requested from the county identified 11 other suspects detained under similar circumstances. He is seeking class-action status for the case.

According to the complaint, Williamson County is erroneously drawing its authority to enforce federal immigration laws from a set of rules created by the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission. That body, a state regulatory agency, drafted the guidelines as part of a law that took effect in 2011, requiring jailers in Tennessee to verify a person’s citizenship status.

County: Department in compliance

Lisa Carson, an attorney representing the county, said the sheriff’s department operated in compliance with the state law. She declined to elaborate on the allegations but expects to file her response with the court in early January.

Ozment is arguing that the county is pre-emptively taking suspects into custody without the permission of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Because Williamson County is not part of ICE’s 287(g) immigrant deportation program, it cannot detain suspected illegal immigrants, according to Ozment, who says ICE is the only agency that can place a hold on Williamson County inmates believed to be here illegally.

Ozment also disputes that the state has the authority to delegate the enforcement of federal immigration laws.

“They don’t have any business doing that,” Ozment said. “The state legislature does not have the power to delegate immigration enforcement to anyone in the state. That is a function only of the federal government.”

Detention could end

Each of the five plaintiffs was held without bail for two to four days by Williamson County while ICE agents attempted to verify their immigration status, according to the lawsuit. Claudia Rios-Quiroz, one of the plaintiffs, is a resident of Fairview. Fernando Ruiz-Espinosa lives in Antioch, Joel Alvardo-Dealmonte is a Nashville resident, Jose Martinez-Lopez lives in Hermitage and Arturo Luna-Utrera resides in Murfreesboro.

Ozment declined to say whether his clients are in the country legally. All of them are now in federal immigration court, where Ozment intends to file a motion suppressing any evidence gained during what he says may have been an unlawful detention in Williamson County.

In Tennessee, state law dictates that law officials issue citations for misdemeanor crimes, rather than take each misdemeanor suspect into custody. The citation recipient must report to the agency for fingerprinting and then appear in court to answer the charge. It is during the booking process that the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission requires local jailers to try to determine an individual’s immigration status.

In a separate but related case, Ozment is also arguing that the state’s rules for detaining the suspects were adopted in violation of the Open Meetings Act and are invalid. That issue is mentioned in the federal suit against Williamson County but is being fought in the Davidson County Chancery Court.

If a temporary injunction is issued during a hearing Wednesday in that case, Williamson County and other agencies across the state may have to stop detaining suspected illegal aliens.

“They don’t operate exactly in tandem, but let’s put it this way,” Ozment said of the parallel cases, “if Williamson County contends the POST Commission requires it to act as it did, that argument will be short-lived. We don’t believe that was promulgated legally.”

Carson said she is aware of the Davidson County case and its potential implications.

Case before court

Confusion over the role state and local governments can play when it comes to immigration is likely to fester until the U.S. Supreme Court issues a ruling on Arizona’s immigration law, says Carol Swain, a Vanderbilt University professor of political science and law. Swain also edited Debating Immigration, a book published in 2007 that features essays on the subject.

The high court has agreed to hear the case, and Swain expects that a ruling in 2012 will help clarify local authority. During just the first quarter of 2011, Swain said, more than 1,500 state and local governments filed resolutions related to immigration. All of them, she said, are born out of a frustration with the federal government.

Until the Supreme Court clarifies the matter, there’s going to be some confusion about what states and localities can do, Swain said.

“Once (immigrants) are in the country, there’s always been overlapping jurisdictions, but these new laws create new areas of federalism and until the Supreme Court rules on the Arizona case, it will be unclear.”

Contact Josh Adamsat 615-771-5417

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