ICE agreements would require more cooperation from county jails
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - A potential legal agreement would allow individual counties in Minnesota to honor ICE detainers without judicial warrants and hold inmates for up to 48 additional hours.
What we know:
The Minnesota Sheriff's Association is pursuing a legal agreement that would allow counties that wanted to do so to temporarily hold jail inmates for ICE agents, according to Rich Hodsdon, General Counsel for the Sheriff's Association.
It would allow individual counties to enter into a contract known as a Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) with ICE.
The FOX 9 Investigators obtained a draft of a similar agreement that ICE has entered into with county jails in other states.
Counties that enter the agreement would be required to provide ICE with "reasonable access to all detainees or inmates for purposes of interviewing such individuals for immigration enforcement-related purposes," according to a draft of a similar agreement ICE has entered into with counties in other states.
The proposal was first reported by the Star Tribune.
ICE legal agreement would pay jails for cooperation
By the numbers:
Counties that enter into the agreement would be required to hold inmates for up to 48 hours after their scheduled release from custody.
In return, jails would be paid up to $2,500 per inmate, depending on how long they are held, according to the agreement.
Border CZAR Tom Homan said last week that county jails must agree to cooperate more before Operation Metro Surge can wind down.
Hodsdon told the FOX 9 Investigators that it will still be up to county boards to decide whether their jails will enter into such agreements.
Attorney General legal guidance on holding inmates
What's next:
Hennepin County and Ramsey County are unlikely to enter into such agreements.
Related: Records undercut ICE claims that MN jails, prisons release 'worst of the worst'
Ramsey County Attorney John Choi has expressed concern that holding inmates after their scheduled release could expose the county to lawsuits for wrongful detention.
Attorney General Keith Ellison addressed those concerns in a legal opinion issued almost one year ago.
"Minnesota law prohibits state and local law enforcement agencies from holding someone based on an immigration detainer if the person would otherwise be released from custody," Ellison wrote last February.
But Ellison’s legal guidance did not address whether counties could enter into agreements that would legally authorize jails to "prolong a person’s detention without a judicial warrant."
Ellison stated he was unaware of any existing agreements with Minnesota law enforcement agencies under that authority.
That may now change.