An April ruling by a federal district court judge in Oregon has led to about 100 local governments around the nation refusing to honor requests from immigration agents to hold deportable aliens in jail beyond their local criminal term until they can be picked up by ICE. The federal judge in that case said the county was liable for damages for holding the Mexican illegal alien, Maria Miranda Olivares, for 19 hours after she completed her local sentence before ICE agents took her into custody.
“It’s very significant because it represents a reduction of the involvement of local police in federal immigration enforcement,” said Hiroshi Motomura, an immigration law professor at UCLA. He said the Oregon court ruling had changed the long-running debate over ICE detainers. “It’s not just political anymore,” Motomura said. “It’s about liability.”
Last fall, alien advocates won a major political victory when Gov. Jerry Brown signed the “Trust Act,” which instructs local officials to only honor ICE detainers in cases involving inmates charged or convicted of a serious offense.
Source: http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-immigration-holds-20140602-story.html
Posted 6/2/14 by Margaret Hull