Sheriff Dan Marx of Winneshiek County, Iowa, has said in public that he will not follow through with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers because he believes they are “unconstitutional.”
Marx explained his strategy in a Facebook post on Tuesday. He said he doesn’t trust ICE’s methods and will stop them if he thinks they are breaking the law.
An ICE detainer tells local police to hold someone they think is in the country illegally for up to 48 hours and let ICE know before letting them go.
Sheriff Marx says that these detainers are just requests that are against the Constitution because they are not orders that have been reviewed by a judge. He said that his department will only work with ICE or other federal agencies if they show them information that has been looked over by a judge and given the green light.
“We will do everything we can to stop, interfere, and block their actions from moving forward if they are not following the rules set by the Constitution,” Marx wrote on Facebook. “This includes non-judicially vetted ‘detainers,’ which are not warrants and are just an unconstitutional ‘request,’ from ICE or another three-letter federal agency to arrest or hold someone.”
He also said that people call him “Sanctuary Sheriff” and “Constitutional Sheriff” because of this strategy.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds wrote Marx a letter in response to what he said, reminding him of his job to follow Iowa law. According to Iowa Code chapter 27A, a sheriff “shall not adopt or enforce a policy or do any other action under which the sheriff prohibits or discourages the enforcement of immigration laws.” This is what she said.
The letter was sent as a formal complaint by Governor Reynolds to Brenna Bird, who is the attorney general of Iowa. Winneshiek County is being looked into by Attorney General Bird, according to KCRG.
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