Iowa sheriffs dispute claim that they're not cooperating with immigration officials

Four Iowa sheriffs are among the city and law enforcement officials around the U.S. questioning the accuracy of a Department of Homeland Security report that lists jurisdictions refusing to cooperate with federal requests to detain undocumented immigrants.

The report was prompted by an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in January that called on the government to document jurisdictions that are not cooperating with federal efforts to find and deport immigrants in the country illegally.

The first list was released Monday, citing 206 examples of immigrants who were said to have been released from custody by local jails despite requests from federal agents. The requests, often called "detainers," have taken on a greater role in the immigration debate under Trump, who opposes local policies that grant leniency to people in the country illegally.

According to the report, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued 12 detention requests to Montgomery County and five requests to Franklin County during the week of Jan. 28 to Feb. 3.

Montgomery County, in southwest Iowa, ranked fourth nationally among non-compliant jurisdictions for the number of detainers it received during that week, according to the report. It fell just behind Cook County, Ill., which includes Chicago. Franklin County, about 90 miles north of Des Moines, ranked ninth nationally.

But Montgomery County Sheriff Joe Sampson and Franklin County Sheriff Linn Larson, both Republicans, said their departments did not receive any detainer requests during that period.

"If we get a detainer, we hold them," Sampson said. "I don’t know how the hell we made the list."

Sampson said his department has not been contacted by anyone from ICE since October. Larson said his department has proactively flagged ICE to check the immigration status of five people since the start of the year.

Shawn Neudauer, an ICE spokesman, said Thursday that the agency is standing by its information.

"These are jurisdictions that at some point in the past have declared themselves to be non-compliant with ICE detainers," Neudauer said.

Counties that disagree with the reported information will be instructed to take it up with their local field office, he said.

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Sac County Sheriff Kenneth McClure said he plans to do that. Sac County was listed in the report for refusing to detain an individual from Mexico on Feb. 11, 2014, who was jailed on a drug possession charge.

Neudauer said in some cases older detainer requests were included in the report because ICE was never previously informed that the inmate had been released from custody. Some of those hold requests were still active in ICE records when the agency created the report.

But McClure, a Republican, said his jail staff has checked records dating back to 2013 and found no record of a detainer matching those facts. He said he has received angry calls to his office questioning whether he's doing his job since the report was released.

"Quite frankly, if ICE wants to detain these people so they can determine whether they're illegal or not, then maybe they should come and get them," McClure said.

Sioux County was listed in the report for a Jan. 27 detainer request for a Guatemalan man who committed a traffic offense.

Sioux City Sheriff Dan Altena said the individual was booked into the jail at 9 p.m. and released by a judge at 10:30 a.m. the next day. He said there was "almost no way we would have gotten that detainer before the next morning."

ICE officials issue detainers that ask local authorities to hold an individual for up to 48 hours to give the agency more time to investigate immigration status. Some jurisdictions, including Franklin and Sioux counties, began ignoring the requests in 2014 after the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled local police departments are not required to hold undocumented immigrants for the federal agency.

"I can’t do my job based on what my opinion might be on immigration. I have to do my job based on what the law has decided, and the law has decided (local agencies) will be liable criminally and civilly if (they) hold somebody on a detainer. If someone changes that, that’s fine," said Altena, also a Republican.

While Sioux County continues to ignore ICE detainer requests for inmates who are otherwise eligible for release, Franklin County changed its policy in January when Larson became the sheriff. He replaced the department's 10-page policy for dealing with ICE officials with one line. It states: The office will cooperate with any federal law enforcement agency.

"My problem was we were separating out what agencies we will and won't work with and from an operational standpoint ...  (that) became very confusing," Larson said.

In total, 12 Iowa counties are listed in the report for having policies that limit their cooperation with ICE.

Larson said the ICE report inaccurately names Franklin County as non-compliant, but he's giving the agency the benefit of the doubt.

"We knew it would take us a period of time before we would migrate off that list," Larson said. "But we have not received anything from (ICE) saying, please certify that you've made this change ... It would have been nice."

ICE issued a statement Thursday that stated jurisdictions listed in the report had — in the past — expressed unwillingness to fully comply with detainer requests or have not provided ICE with sufficient time to allow for the safe transfer of a detainee.

"ICE seeks cooperation from all its law enforcement partners to achieve our mutual goal of protecting public safety," the statement read. "If a law enforcement jurisdiction publicly changes its policies to honor ICE detainers, ICE will revise the DDOR report accordingly."

— USA Today reporter Alan Gomez and Associated Press reporter Paul J. Weber contributed to this report.