Since mid-January, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has placed detainers on three undocumented inmates at the Montezuma County Detention Center.
Detainers are also known as ICE holds, and they’re two-part.
They request an agency to notify ICE “as early as possible” before releasing an undocumented inmate and also ask the agency to hold the inmate for up to 48 hours after their release so that the Department of Homeland Security may “assume custody in accordance with federal immigration law,” according to ice.gov.
Detainer or no detainer, the inmates must serve the duration of their sentence.
But to comply with the detainer, the Sheriff’s Office will notify ICE when those inmates are released, said Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin.
They will not hold inmates any longer than their sentence, and ICE agents are not allowed in the jail or courts to arrest the person of interest.
“We can’t violate federal law. If we know someone is in violation of a federal law, we can’t harbor them here,” Nowlin said. “Denver is fixing to find that out, too.”
“I’ll never harbor criminals, no matter who they are,” he said.
Of the three inmates with detainers, one is still serving a sentence at the jail.
One was released and arrested by ICE in Cortez. The other was released but had a warrant from Jefferson County, so they were taken to jail there, and the detainer followed them.
Nowlin said he wasn’t sure how many detainers the office has received from ICE in the past several years because they don’t track it. “There’s only been a few,” he said.
He added that, as it stands, the Sheriff’s Office is unable to ask an inmate where they’re from, though he said that might change since Gov. Jared Polis said Jan. 24 that Colorado isn’t a sanctuary state.
Mancos Town Marshal Justen Goodall said that it’s not the first time ICE has been in the area, though rumors of agents on Mancos Hill, for instance, are just that – rumors.
In 2019, ICE made three arrests on detainers in Mancos.
Local and state law enforcement officials cannot make arrests solely based on such detainers, said Goodall.
They can assist ICE when “a true warrant is signed by a judge. A detainer is not.”
Nowlin added that Section 287(G) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 makes it so local and state law enforcement can work with ICE.
“This section of law authorizes the Director of ICE to enter into agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies, which permit designated officers to perform limited immigration law enforcement functions,” according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Nowlin said that the American Civil Liberties Union sued the Teller County Sheriff’s Office near Colorado Springs for assisting ICE in immigration enforcement as part of its 287(G) agreement.
The court recently ruled in favor of the Sheriff’s Office.
Goodall said that in 2019, “there was a misconception that we were assisting more than we were.”
He said that he – and any other local law enforcement officials – cannot interfere with ICE, but that he can “make sure citizens do not interfere, obstruct or strike a federal officer,” because the minimum mandatory sentence for such an offense is five years.
To be sure, President Donald Trump’s executive orders “have no bearing on state law enforcement” and their duties haven’t changed, Goodall said.
He added that it “doesn’t matter if you’re a tourist in the U.S., here undocumented, or a citizen, when you’re in the United States of America, you’re under the protections of the Constitution,” which are protections Americans often take for granted.
