As President Donald Trump’s massive deportation effort of illegal aliens in the country intensifies – and those who stand in his way are being targeted for retribution – a recent lengthy press release from the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office makes it crystal clear that the Office is in no way a “sanctuary agency.”

 That is, it’s not a place like certain cities, such as New York or Chicago, where law enforcement officers don’t communicate and cooperate with ICE officials.

Jim Secor, a deputy county attorney and legal advisor to the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office, said this week a recent news report about Trump’s crackdown on illegal aliens mistakenly named Guilford County as a sanctuary area and, Secor said, the Sheriff’s Office felt compelled to clear up the misconception.

Guilford County Sheriff Danny Rogers is a Democrat, and is certainly no fan of Trump; however, complications as to how the Sheriff’s Office deals with illegal aliens predates Rogers by years.

 Staunch Republican and Trump supporter BJ Barnes, who was sheriff of Guilford County for roughly a quarter of a century before Rogers became sheriff, told the Rhino Times repeatedly over the years that he couldn’t just keep people behind bars without the proper legal paperwork. Barnes said that his Office, unless ICE had a warrant, would be wide open to a lawsuit for illegal detainment if he kept inmates past the allowable time period just because ICE agents hadn’t come in time to remove them from the jail.

Press releases from the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office are almost always extremely short; however, when Guilford County was recently named in a news report as a sanctuary agency, the Office went to great lengths to correct the misconception – largely because the office didn’t want to get any blowback from the president during his recent deportation efforts.

The unusual press release from the Sheriff’s Office addresses “recent statements which have incorrectly labeled Guilford County as a “sanctuary jurisdiction” for immigration purposes. To be clear, in immigration matters, Guilford County is not a ‘sanctuary county’ and the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office is not a ‘sanctuary agency,’ nor have they ever been.”

In fact, the release adds, the Sheriff’s Office’s policies and procedures are the same now as they’ve been for at least a decade.   That is, the Sheriff’s Office communicates frequently with immigration officials from ICE concerning the presence of illegal immigrants in both the jail in Greensboro and the jail in High Point.

In doing so, the Office complies fully with the communication-related provisions in federal and state law that pertain to immigration detainers.

The press release adds, “The Guilford County Sheriff’s Office has, however, consistently stated its concerns that the ICE immigration detainer process violates the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution because ICE detainers are signed by ICE employees — not judicial officials. While those in our Country illegally are not entitled to the exact same level of constitutional protection as United States citizens, federal court decisions strongly indicate that certain constitutional rights (e.g., the right to due process, right to counsel, and right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures) under the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments apply to illegal immigrants.”

An arrest, or the detention of an individual, is a ‘seizure’ under the Fourth Amendment.

Continuing to hold someone in custody for an additional 48 hours under an ICE detainer, without a judge’s or magistrate’s authorization, according to Sheriff’s Office officials, raises Fourth Amendment issues.

“For many years, the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office has consistently informed ICE that the Sheriff’s Office would honor ICE detainers IF supported by an order or warrant signed by a judicial official that finds probable cause to hold the individual,” the statement reads. “Given that the Sheriff’s Office has a written agreement with the US Marshals Service to hold federal prisoners in the Greensboro Jail and that there is a federal courthouse just two blocks away from the Jail, obtaining judicial approval of a detainer should not be difficult for ICE to accomplish, yet ICE routinely refuses to do so.”

According to Guilford County Sheriff’s Office officials, “requiring ICE detainers to be authorized by a federal judicial official – based on probable cause to believe a violation of federal immigration law has occurred –is an abundantly reasonable request by the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office.”

“ICE’s refusal is illogical because, on its very own website, ICE acknowledges that its detainers are ‘requests,’ not judicial or statutory mandates,” the press release states.

The statement from the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office argues that the Office’s position on the matter is “reasonable and constitutional” – however, the financial risks of honoring ICE detainers without the approval of judicial officials are significant.

Former Sheriff BJ Barnes told the Rhino Times for years that illegally detaining anyone – immigrant or otherwise – might result in a major lawsuit against the county.

Also, in a recent federal court decision in New York – Orellana Castaneda v. County of Suffolk – the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office was found liable for $60 million in a lawsuit that was brought by illegal immigrants were held by Suffolk County pursuant to detainers issued by ICE.

“Ironically, ICE was dismissed from the lawsuit, which left the local Sheriff’s Office there and the county residents on the hook for the multi-million-dollar verdict,” the Sheriff’s Office explains.

The residents of Guilford County, the press release notes, shouldn’t have the Sheriff’s office take to face the same substantial financial penalty simply because ICE refuses to have its detainers supported by an order or warrant issued by a federal judicial official.

Secor told the Rhino Times that the Sheriff’s Office, if it finds immigrants here illegally, but they have committed no crimes, the deputies do not arrest or detain them.

He also said that not all of those people who are here without proper papers have committed a crime.  For instance, he said, if someone snuck across the border to get in then they did commit a criminal act;  however, if they had a legitimate Visa and it had expired, Secor said that would be a civil violation, not a criminal one.

What’s more, he said, the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office doesn’t have the legal authority to arrest someone just for being in the country illegally.

“There is no Section 287(g) Agreement between ICE and the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office,” the press release from the Office reads.  “The last such agreement was rescinded in November 2010—eight years before Sheriff Rogers first took office. As a result, Sheriff Rogers and his Deputies have no legal authority to participate in ICE raids nor to arrest those suspected solely of immigration violations. Those matters are under ICE’s jurisdiction, not ours.”

The Sheriff’s Office notes that it will, of course, continue to arrest anyone – illegal immigrant or otherwise – for committing crimes. But the Office doesn’t have the jurisdiction – or the available officers – to conduct arrests for immigration violations.

While the Office won’t interfere with ICE’s ability to make lawful immigration arrests in Guilford County, Sheriff’s Office officials state, “Our focus is and should be on protecting the safety of Guilford County residents by enforcing State law and arresting criminals who commit State law crimes.”

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