Trump Administration Halts Reports on Immigration Cooperation
By RON NIXON
APRIL 10, 2017
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will temporarily stop publication of a weekly report spotlighting cities and counties that fail to cooperate with federal immigration officials, people briefed on the change said, after several jurisdictions questioned the accuracy of the data.
The report, required by an executive order signed by President Trump in January, shows localities that decline requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to hold undocumented immigrants so they can be picked up later for deportation.
ICE officials say the lack of cooperation endangers Americans, but cities and counties named in the reports say they are an attempt to force them to collaborate with the immigration authorities.
Sarah Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for ICE, confirmed the temporary suspension of the report, saying it would allow the agency to “analyze and refine its reporting methodologies.”
The first report, released last month, was intended to provide a complete tally of cities and counties that had declined requests from ICE. But it contained misleading information that prompted confusion and defiance among law enforcement officials from the jurisdictions named.
For example, Nisha Agarwal, commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, said the ICE report incorrectly listed the city as being uncooperative even though it does assist the immigration agency.
Ms. Agarwal said the city responded to ICE requests to detain people who had committed a violent crime or who were on a terrorism watch list. It does not respond to requests for people who have been convicted of minor crimes or have had charges against them dropped, she said.
One of the nation’s largest counties — Nassau County, N.Y., on Long Island — was also listed as noncooperative in the first report. But the Nassau County Sheriff’s Department said it was one of the first localities in the nation to agree to accept administrative warrants from the agency.
Officials there said ICE had apologized for including the county in its initial report.
ICE also apologized to Franklin County, Pa., for including it on a list of the top 10 noncompliant jurisdictions. The county said it had been erroneously placed on the list even though it provides reports on prisoners to ICE and grants the agency access to inmates for interviews.
Stephen Ritchey, assistant director at ICE’s office in York, Pa., wrote, “On a personal note, I would like to apologize for the unwarranted attention this issue has placed on you and your staff.”
In Minnesota, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office called the report “incorrect in many ways” and also demanded an apology from ICE officials.
Sheriff Richard Stanek of Hennepin County said his office had cooperated with requests from ICE and notified immigration officials when two undocumented immigrants wanted by the federal authorities were going to be released. He said both inmates were transferred into ICE custody when they were released from jail.
During a news conference last month, Mr. Stanek displayed time-stamped pictures from his jail showing the two inmates being picked up by deportation agents the day they were released.
Jon Collins, a spokesman for the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, said ICE had not issued a correction or an apology for its description of the county’s cooperation.
Disagreements over whether ICE has the authority to force local law enforcement officials to hold inmates suspected of being undocumented immigrants for the federal authorities has been a point of contention for years.
ICE issues a so-called detainer to ask a city or a county to hold a person in custody after charges have been dismissed in a criminal case, or after the accused has posted bail or completed a sentence. The detainer gives the agency up to 48 hours to look into the person’s immigration status and, where appropriate, begin deportation procedures.
But federal judges in Pennsylvania, Illinois and Oregon have ruled that accepting detainers without judicial warrants is unconstitutional and that counties could be held liable. A similar case on the lawfulness of detainers is pending before the Massachusetts Supreme Court.
Officials at the Department of Homeland Security said that they did not think the agency needed a warrant to ask local jurisdictions to hold immigrants believed to be undocumented, and that they considered the detainers legally sufficient.
The weekly reports are part of Mr. Trump’s get-tough policies on illegal immigration. He has pledged to find, arrest and deport people who are in the country illegally, regardless of whether they have committed serious crimes; to build a wall on the border with Mexico; and to hire 15,000 new Border Patrol and ICE agents.
Mr. Trump has also directed the Department of Homeland Security to publicize crimes by undocumented immigrants, strip such immigrants of privacy protections, enlist local police officers as enforcers, build new detention facilities, discourage asylum seekers and, ultimately, speed up deportations.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/10/u...migration.html
ICE Responds to Errors in Declined Detainer Report
by BOB PRICE
12 Apr 2017
Washington, D.C.
Immigration officials temporarily suspended the report that exposes sanctuary cities and the criminals subject to detainers they release.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials temporarily suspended the Declined Detainer Outcome Report (DDOR) as they attempt to refine the data reporting process. The report details information about sanctuary jurisdictions, their policies, and the criminal aliens ICE officers have placed under immigration detainers. “ICE remains committed to publishing the most accurate information available regarding declined detainers across the country and continues to analyze and refine its reporting methodologies,” ICE Spokesperson Sarah Rodriguez wrote in an email responding to questions submitted by Breitbart Texas.
“The DDOR has already sparked important conversations between ICE and law enforcement agencies across the nation, and the revised report will add to this discussion,” Rodriguez explained. “ICE continues to collaborate with all law enforcement agencies to help ensure that aliens who may pose a threat to our communities are not released onto the streets to potentially re-offend and harm individuals living within our communities. However, in some cases, state or local laws, ordinances or policies restrict or prohibit cooperation with ICE. In other cases, jurisdictions choose to willfully decline ICE detainers or requests for notification and release criminals back into the community.”
ICE officials received pushback from some jurisdictions incorrectly reported as having released criminal aliens under detainers in the first series of reports. In the initial document covering January 28-February 3, Texas led the nation with released criminal aliens. The report listed Travis, Bastrop, and Williamson Counties and the state’s jail facility as having released 149 of the 206 released criminal aliens for that week, Breitbart Texas reported.
Breitbart Texas learned that the criminal aliens reportedly released by Bastrop and Williamson Counties were actually transferred to Travis County. Sheriff “Sanctuary Sally” Hernandez subsequently released the criminal aliens.
ICE officials acknowledged the errors in the report and issued the following statement concerning accuracy issues:
Correction: Due to a data processing error, the Jan. 28 – Feb 03, 2017 Declined Detainer Outcome Report incorrectly attributed issued detainers to Franklin County, Iowa; Franklin County, New York; Franklin County, Pennsylvania; and Montgomery County, Iowa that were in fact issued to agencies outside of the respective county’s jurisdiction in similarly named locations. Additionally, detainers that appeared as being declined by Williamson County, TX and Bastrop County, TX were cases where the individual was transferred to another facility where they were released. Finally, detainers appeared as being declined by Chester County, PA and Richmond County, NC when those detainers were incorrectly issued to those locations. The subjects of those detainers were in different locations.
Rodriguez stressed the importance of the report and exposing sanctuary jurisdictions that are releasing criminal aliens subject to removal. “When criminal aliens are released from local or state custody, they have the opportunity to reoffend,” Rodriguez explained. “There are also many risks and uncertainties involved when apprehending dangerous criminal aliens at-large in the community. It takes careful planning and extensive resources to mitigate those risks and make a safe apprehension in a community setting. It is much safer for all involved – the community, law enforcement, and even the criminal alien – if ICE officers take custody in the controlled environment of another law enforcement agency.”
ICE officials have not announced a planned resumption date for the DDOR.
http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/...tainer-report/
