Winneshiek County changes policy on ICE holding requests

Winneshiek County has changed its policy about holding foreign-born inmates at the federal government's request.  21 other Iowa counties have also made the change.

When a person suspected of being an undocumented immigrant was taken into custody in Winneshiek County on local charges in the past, the Sheriff's Department would frequently contact ICE--the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  In the past ICE would sometimes send Winneshiek County a detainer form, asking the county to detain the person beyond the time of their initial court appearance and release on the local charges.  The detention order gave ICE more time to conduct an investigation into whether other charges were pending against the foreign-born person.

But federal court rulings in Oregon, New Jersey and other jurisdictions concluded the ICE detainer requests did not meet the standard of proving probable cause to detain someone, since the detainer request was issued administratively and not by a judge.  That has led to a decision by the Winneshiek County Sheriff's Department that it would ask ICE to go before a judge and get a warrant in any case in which it wanted to detain someone.

Sheriff Leon Bohr says that's similar to the way the Sheriff's Department handles detention requests from other law enforcement agencies, so the new system—which began in late May—is more uniform.  Winneshiek County Attorney Andy Van Der Maaten—who reviewed the impact of the Oregon court ruling—says the new system also better protects Winneshiek County against liability for detaining someone who had been held only because of the ICE detainer form.