KGMI News
by Peter Wagner
BELLINGHAM, Wash. – A day after the Whatcom County Sheriff said a regional Immigration and Customs Enforcement official characterized their “non-cooperative” status on a government list as a likely error, the department showed up on another list generated by the immigration agency.
After KGMI looked into the matter, Elfo says ICE is telling him his office will be removed from the list if he can provide evidence of compliance.
The “Declined Detainer Outcome Report,” first issued earlier this month in response to a presidential executive order, listed the office as one that doesn’t cooperate with ICE, which surprised Sheriff Bill Elfo.
“This identification stems from the Sheriffs’ compliance with a federal court decision that precludes them from honoring ICE requests to detain persons in jail past their scheduled release times on state and local charges without a warrant,” Sheriff Elfo wrote.
You can read more about the court case that triggered policy changes across Washington state here.
After KGMI News informed the Sheriff his department was listed, Elfo said he reached out to a regional official with the immigration agency and asked for clarification on why the department was deemed non-cooperative.
“The acting director of [The Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations] advised me that his agents reported that the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office is cooperative and it appeared the County should not have been listed as “non-cooperative” jurisdiction.”
Actually removing the county from the listing could take time, Elfo indirectly quoted the immigration official as saying.
A Seattle field office spokesperson has not yet responded to comment on this statement.
But a day later, the office was again listed as non-cooperative.
“The jurisdictions reflected in ICE’s… report are jurisdictions that have – in the past – publically [sic] expressed unwillingness to fully comply with ICE’s detainer requests or have not provided ICE with sufficient time to allow for the safe transfer of a detainee,” the agency wrote in a prepared statement Thursday.
Sheriff Elfo responded to ICE spokespeople with a pages-long email reiterating the department policy and going into more detail about his conversations with local officials.
The county was deemed “non-cooperative” based on a newspaper article about the 2014 Miranda-Olivares v. Clackamas County decision, Elfo wrote, though what article is being referenced is unclear.
Decisions about which agency will be on the list are made at the national office, and Sheriff Elfo contends his office was not contacted by federal officials about the list prior to its publication.
“I am very surprised that given our long-standing relationship with the Department of Homeland Security, that ICE would rely on newspaper articles to shame our agency,” Elfo wrote in an email Thursday afternoon.
The Seattle office of ICE found the current arrangement with the county acceptable, Elfo said.
While Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officials responded to Sheriff Elfo, they have repeatedly declined to answer any specific questions related to Whatcom County.