Attorney General Todd Rokita is pulling back on threats of legal action against the Lake County Sheriff’s office. He said the law enforcement agency is now cooperating with federal immigration officials.
In two letters last year, Rokita accused the Lake County sheriff of refusing to honor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers. Those are requests from the federal government to hold people in jail past their release date to allow federal agents to determine whether to take them into custody for potential deportation.
Indiana law gives the attorney general the authority to enforce its ban on so-called “sanctuary city policies” — restricting cooperation with federal officials over citizenship or immigration information.
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In a statement, Rokita said the Lake County sheriff is now honoring ICE detainers and, as a result, undocumented immigrants will be deported rather than released back into Indiana communities.
That’s not necessarily true. Indiana sheriffs told lawmakers recently that federal authorities don’t always follow up on the detainers and Indiana authorities can’t hold them indefinitely.
Rokita is currently suing two local sheriff departments under that law, in Monroe and St. Joseph counties.
Brandon is our Statehouse bureau chief. Contact him at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.