http://www.startribune.com/462/story/887173.html

Local authorities part with feds on raids, detention

By Herón Márquez Estrada, Star Tribune
December 20, 2006

The Ramsey County jail won't accept federal immigration detainees for the next month while the County Board decides on a new policy.

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher said he won't accept any undocumented immigrants into the county jail for the next month, as the Ramsey County Board considers whether to continue the sticky, but profitable, business of housing prisoners seized by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

The agency pays $80 per person per day -- or almost $2 million a year -- to board prisoners at the Ramsey County jail. A permanent change could come as soon as next month when the board gets a report from the county manager and Fletcher.

"To make money off this bad policy is not right morally," Commissioner Rafael Ortega said in a letter to colleagues proposing the change.

Although the Ramsey County Board moved cautiously Tuesday, its discussion is part of a growing national outcry from local officials and agencies at odds with what they see as failed national immigration policies.

"The county is not alone," said Pablo Tapia, a volunteer with Isaiah, a faith-based nonprofit group that works with undocumented immigrants. "Cities and counties are supporting the idea of not working with the feds. They don't want to be satellites of a broken system."

But others argue that the state and local governments should take an active role in enforcing immigration laws because some illegal immigrants engage in crime and identity fraud, some drive vehicles without licenses and insurance and still others are susceptible to becoming victims of crime because of their fear of seeking police help.

Jurisdictions from Boston to San Francisco have either denounced federal immigration practices or sided with undocumented immigrants by taking such acts as declaring themselves raid-free zones. Cities such as St. Paul, Minneapolis, Seattle and San Francisco have policies telling their officers not to act as immigration agents by asking people their legal status.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty contends those ordinances violate federal law. In January, he proposed a number of changes to state immigration policy, including creating a state enforcement team and overriding city ordinances in Minneapolis and St. Paul that prohibit police officers from taking action against illegal immigrants unless they are arrested for a separate crime. That part of the governor's proposal was approved by the Minnesota House in March but did not pass in the Senate.

Swift action

The Worthington Police Department refused to participate in the recent ICE raid at a Swift & Co. meat processing plant where more than 300 suspected undocumented workers were arrested.

"Our officers need to get the message out that they are not the immigration police," said Worthington Mayor Alan Oberloh, who is pushing for immigration reform.

Oberloh said the police decision to refrain from helping immigration agents was simple: Worthington police worry that helping ICE will have a chilling effect on undocumented residents reporting crimes or acting as witnesses to wrongdoing.

He said the only police agency that helped ICE during the Worthington raid was the State Patrol, and they were only on the scene to control traffic.

"We did it for harmony," Oberloh said Tuesday. "Long after ICE is gone we're still going to be here."

Other agencies, including the Grand Island, Neb., police, refused to participate in the recent nationwide sweep in which 1,300 alleged illegal immigrants were arrested.

Cool response

ICE spokesman Tim Counts said Tuesday that the proposed Ramsey County action would not be a major blow to his agency.

"It simply means that we'll move our detainees to other facilities," Counts said. "We move prisoners every day."

He said ICE has, on average, between 150 and 200 prisoners housed in Minnesota jails in Sherburne, Washington, Carver, Ramsey and Nobles counties.

He said ICE's Midwest region, which includes Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Wisconsin and Iowa, deports about 3,000 people a year.

Counts also dismissed the idea that Ortega's proposal could be taken up by other jurisdictions around the state.

"We're confident we will have detention room to hold our prisoners," he said.

However, Ortega said he hopes to spark a debate locally and nationally about the need for immigration reform.

"I want to open up the discussion," Ortega said. "What I'm trying to tell the federal government is that we as a county are not participating in a broken system. We're not the only local government discussing the issue."

Ortega said he started talking to Fletcher about the issue more than six months ago when Maria Inamagua Merchan, a 30-year-old Ecuadorian woman awaiting deportation, died after collapsing at the Ramsey County jail.

Fletcher said that death, which is being investigated by the federal government, highlighted the problem with housing immigration prisoners.

Fletcher said that while other prisoners spend an average of four days in jail, immigration detainees are held for an average of 100 days. He said one has been held more than 400 days.

He said there are language problems, too. His 60 ICE prisoners speak 12 languages and represent more than 30 countries.

Although no public debate was allowed by the board, several people attended the meeting to support Ortega's plan.

"We've got a crisis here," said Deborah Rosenstein, who works for the Labor Education Service office at the University of Minnesota. "It's a humanitarian, moral issue that's taken the Worthington raid to bring attention to it."