County Breaks With Feds on Detention Policy

Cook County will stop routinely complying with detention requests from federal immigration officials under an ordinance approved Wednesday by the County Board of Commissioners.

Under federal regulations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement can request that local law enforcement agencies hold people for up to 48 hours, not including weekends and holidays, after they are set to be released because charges have been dropped, they have met bail or they have been found not guilty. ICE can pick up the detainees if they may have violated immigration laws and could face deportation.

“In America, we don’t detain people without probable cause,” said Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who introduced the ordinance. “That would violate constitutional guarantees like due process and equal protection. But these detainers are not based on probable cause and they have been imposed on U.S. citizens including veterans by mistake.”

The measure, which was approved by a vote of 10-5, followed an Indiana federal court ruling in June that detainer requests by ICE are not criminal warrants. It had been unclear whether ICE could require local law enforcement agencies to comply with its requests for extended detention and proponents of the ordinance interpreted the ruling to mean that local agencies are not compelled.

Under the ordinance, the sheriff’s department will decline ICE detainer requests unless the federal government has agreed in writing to reimburse the county for any associated costs. The ordinance also prohibits ICE agents from having access to people detained by the county without a criminal warrant.

“It’s important for us to recognize that this is about increasing safety, this is about serving the taxpayers better, and this is about keeping families together,” said Board President Toni Preckwinkle.

Proponents of the ordinance also argued that Cook County taxpayers should not have to pay for federal immigration enforcement. According to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, it costs the county $143 a day to hold someone in jail. The jail is currently holding 289 people with ICE detainers. Proponents of the ordinance used those figures to estimate that it costs the county $15 million a year to comply with the federal immigration detainer requests.* The county faces a budget shortfall of over $300 million for the upcoming fiscal year.

“This is a $15 million unfunded mandate,” said Commissioner Bridget Gainer, who voted for the measure. “The only way to move this country toward the real immigration reform we need is to stop funding the band-aids and stop-gap measures.”

Opponents argued the ordinance could endanger public safety by releasing criminals who should be deported.

“This ordinance, in my opinion, is a monumental mistake,” said Commissioner Timothy Schneider. “It asks this board… to take a dangerous public safety risk.”

“Do we really want someone who’s been convicted of some of these offenses let out when they could be deported?” Schneider asked.

The debate drew a standing-room only audience, most of whom appeared in favor of the ordinance. The Rev. Larry Dowling of St. Agatha’s church near Douglas Park praised the commissioners for passing the ordinance.

“This ordinance protects families,” Dowling said. “Many of the people getting caught up in immigration enforcement are hard-working children and families of U.S. citizens, who pose no danger to our communities.”

Sheriff Tom Dart did not immediately return a call for comment.

When asked by Commissioner John Daley whether the ordinance would jeopardize public safety, Peter Kramer, general counsel for the sheriff’s office, said, “I think it’s too speculative a question to give a fair answer.”

*Correction: An earlier version of this article attributed the estimated cost of complying with ICE detainers to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office. The estimate was made by proponents of the ordinance based on figures from the sheriff’s office.