An East Central Minnesota sheriff argues that Democratic officials’ hostility toward Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) creates “chaos” as other sheriffs walk back their support.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Minneapolis leaders should welcome partnering with ICE if they want its current surge in deportations to run smoothly and transparently, Mille Lacs County Sheriff Kyle Burton told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Burton’s office is one of nine local law enforcement agencies in Minnesota that signed contracts with ICE authorizing them to perform tasks such as arresting illegal aliens for federal immigration violations or transferring inmates to ICE. The agencies, spanning seven counties and one city, signed the contracts after President Donald Trump returned to office, ICE records show.
“Immigration enforcement is going to take place whether we agree or disagree with that,” Burton said in an email. “That being said, I felt that I needed to be proactive and not reactive to the discussions about how and what that is going to look like in my county.”
“I did not want to have a situation like many communities have experienced where there are immigration enforcement operations taking place without the sheriff or police chief having any knowledge or input into the operations,” Burton said. “That is what you are seeing in Minneapolis and it should come as no surprise to anyone that there has been chaos as a result.”
Walz’s office, Ellison’s office and the Minneapolis city government’s media team did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment. Walz’s Department of Corrections, which controls state-level jails, previously defended itself against Trump’s criticism by saying that it complies with ICE detainment requests.
Two fatal shootings of protesters by immigration agents in January brought tensions to a boiling point in Minneapolis. White House border czar Tom Homan announced Wednesday that 700 federal agents were leaving Minnesota after a phone call between Walz and Trump.
Legal Onslaught
ICE’s contracts with local agencies — known as 287(g) agreements — are under fire from Ellison and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which sued the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office in December over claims that the agreements give undue authority to local law enforcement. Ellison issued a non-binding legal opinion that month declaring that Minnesota law bars sheriffs from signing them without county commissioners’ approval and bans local law enforcement from detaining people based solely on ICE requests.
Burton is one law enforcement official taking a defiant stance against his state’s anti-ICE backlash.
“With regard to the Minnesota Attorney General and whether or not we will continue to participate in the program, the answer is yes, we will,” Burton told the DCNF. “His opinion is not a ruling, he is not a judge or a law maker. He and I have different opinions on this issue.”
The Cass County and Itasca County sheriffs previously said they are treating their ICE contracts as void due to Ellison’s opinion, while Kandiyohi County has yet to decide how to respond after a Tuesday board meeting, and Crow Wing County indicated there would be no change in approach, according to local media reports. The ACLU’s lawsuit against Freeborn County is pending in federal court.
Additionally, the Minnesota Association of County Attorneys declined to approve another ICE agreement proposed by sheriffs that would allow ICE 48 hours to retrieve an inmate from local jail, KAXE reported Thursday.
“It is my belief that the presence and partnership of local law enforcement not only offers additional support but helps to ensure that established protocols are followed with consistency and transparency,” Burton told the DCNF. “When local and federal law enforcement can operate cooperatively, that strengthens accountability, oversight and creates a more unified standard. It prevents breakdowns in communication and misunderstandings.”
Burton compared Minnesota’s situation to how government agencies failed to communicate with one another to prevent the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“We are unfortunately seeing some of that play out again in the streets of Minneapolis,” he said. “The Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Governor Tim Walz, AG Keith Ellison, [Minneapolis Police] Chief Brian O’Hara and numerous others made it clear very early on that they did not wish to partner with or support any immigration enforcement operations in the Twin Cities.”
Isle Police Department Chief Mark Reichel and Sheburne County Sheriff Joel Brott did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment on their agencies’ 287(g) agreements.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin concurred that more local assistance means fewer ICE agents in the streets.
“Elected officials who refuse to cooperate with DHS law enforcement are wasting law enforcement time, energy, and resources, while putting their own constituents in danger,” she told the DCNF, claiming that seven of America’s top ten safest cities cooperate with ICE.
“We would love for state and local law enforcement to sign 287(g) agreements to help us remove criminal illegal aliens,” McLaughlin said. “Partnerships with law enforcement are critical to having the enforcement we need to arrest criminal illegal aliens across the country.”
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