Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is filing a lawsuit to strip funding from an entire county after its top law enforcement official pledged to “make every effort to block, interfere, and interrupt” deportation operations tied to Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers, which he claims are unconstitutional.
The move comes as part of the Trump administration’s sweeping, whole-of-government effort to crack down on illegal immigration and combat migrant-related crime across the country, Fox News reported.
Bird, a Republican, argued in court filings that the sheriff’s self-proclaimed “longtime” position of interrupting immigration enforcement operations based on detainers “impeded and discouraged cooperation with federal immigration authorities in violation of Iowa law.”
A detainer is a formal request issued by ICE asking local law enforcement agencies to hold an individual the agency has reasonable grounds to believe is an undocumented immigrant who poses a threat to public safety and community well-being.
ICE officials warn that when law enforcement agencies refuse to honor these detainers, they risk endangering their communities by releasing potentially dangerous individuals back onto the streets, Fox noted.
But despite the warnings, Winneshiek County Sheriff Dan Marx has insisted he won’t cooperate with ICE detainers in a Feb. 4 Facebook post in which he argued is “simply an unconstitutional request from ICE.”
Marx, in a now-deleted post, asked count residents to contact his office if they encounter “any federal agents” and added that he and his staff are “always willing to assist with verifying credentials and the legitimacy of any paperwork federal agents should have to make certain your rights are not being abused.”
“If the fed’s actions and paperwork are within constitutional parameters (such as proper and valid judicial warrants/court orders) we will assist if needed or requested to ensure their actions are carried out professionally and in the least intrusive fashion possible,” he wrote.
“If their actions or paperwork are not within constitutional parameters,” he continued, “then we will make every effort to block, interfere and interrupt their actions from moving
