Speaking for county sheriffs statewide, Cowlitz County Sheriff Mark Nelson confirmed in a weekend letter that they will continue to reject Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer requests for possible illegal aliens. Without naming the Trump administration, the letter in effect tells the government to back off one aspect of immigration enforcement. Nelson said the association is choosing the U.S. Constitution over the demands of a federal agency. But the action could make the association vulnerable to a loss of federal funds.

The detainers are requests to police to hold people for 48 hours beyond their scheduled jail release time if they are suspected of being federal “criminal aliens.” In the strongly worded March 31 letter, Nelson reminded ICE that the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in April 2014 ruled the practice violates the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. "Let there be no mistake: Sheriffs support and cooperate with ICE in their efforts to identify and deport criminal aliens. Preventing crime and holding criminals accountable are key duties of our elected positions," wrote Nelson, writing as president of the Washington State Sheriff’s Association. "But we also swore an oath to follow the law and obey the constitution. To do our duty we must balance all interests." ICE did not immediately respond to the letter. But ICE spokeswoman Rose Richeson said detainers are a safe, timely way for federal agents to gain custody of individuals while they’re still in custody. Without them, ICE agents must locate the individual, sometimes confronting them in public. She said all law enforcement jurisdictions handle detainer requests differently. In a phone interview Monday, Sheriff Nelson said ICE is asking law enforcement to violate the constitution and people’s rights. "The arbitrary labeling of sheriff's as being uncooperative does nothing to serve the purpose of public safety or protect our communities. Sheriffs need to uphold what is legal and what is right and not bend to political pressure or convenience. The public expects us to enforce the law while obeying the law," Nelson wrote in the letter. The sheriffs' letter was prompted after a meeting of elected Washington State sheriffs where many voiced "disappointment and surprise" that several sheriffs' offices had been listed on a Department of Homeland Security report stating that they limited their cooperation with ICE. "This insinuates we are not upholding our sworn oath to keep communities safe. This is absurd and an insult to each county's duly elected chief law enforcement officer," the letter reads. The Department of Homeland Security recently released its first "Declined Detainer Outcome Report", which lists jurisdictions that had some of the highest volumes of declined detainers. The report is supposed to be released weekly under an executive order by President Donald Trump. Some of the Washington counties who had declined to honor detainers in February were Cowlitz, Clark, Skagit, King, Jefferson, Whatcom and others. Nelson called the reports a shaming list, saying that ICE is claiming that elected officers are threats to their communities. "It’s frustrating for a sheriff, a career law enforcement officer committed to life to this effort of protecting this community to have someone say that the decision we make and what we’re doing is a threat to public safety", Nelson said. "I'm sorry, but we're in the position we're in because of the court decision. And I'm not saying whether that's good, bad, right, wrong, that's not mine to say. But it's mine to live by. …Our request to immigration is work with us, talk with us and don't threaten us, because this is not the way we're going with". Richeson said DHS is working with the Department of Justice to develop a process to allow the government to withhold federal funding from the jurisdictions that don’t comply with ICE. She said that being placed on a weekly detainer report however, did not automatically mean a jurisdiction would have federal funds withheld. Nelson said losing federal assistance would have a serious impact. "It affects the guy on the street or our ability to put a guy on the street. It's a real thing for us", he said. Contact Daily News reporter Denver Pratt at 360 577 2541.

Immigration
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