The Florida House passed a bill Wednesday that would fine local governments and law enforcement agencies that do not fully comply with federal immigration authorities. However a recent report from the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida finds that at least 30 counties in the state do limit their compliance with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to prevent themselves from violating peoples’ constitutional rights.
The Federal Immigration Enforcement bill, (HB 675) sponsored by Rep. Larry Metz, R-Groveland, would fine counties up to $5,000 a day if they don’t fully comply with ICE. The ACLU’s report finds that could be a problem for counties that limit their compliance with ICE detainers. These detainers are requests to hold someone in law enforcement custody for 48 hours beyond when they otherwise would have been released.
“Usually when we hold someone in our constitutional system, a judge has to say, ‘Oh, there’s probable cause that this person has done something wrong. So you’re entitled to detain them.’ And the problem with these ICE detainers is there’s no probable cause determination made by a judge,” said ACLU staff attorney and lead author of the report Shalini Goel Agrawal.
“So in recognition of that, at least 30 counties around the state have said, ‘we cannot honor these ICE detainers because if we do, we are violating our constitutional obligations. We can’t detain people without probable cause.”
Charlotte, Hendry, Lee, Manatee and Sarasota Counties are among those that don’t honor all ICE detainers. Supporters of the bill say it only enforces existing law, the but the ACLU report says ICE detainers are non-mandatory requests and can open up local governments and law enforcement agencies to lawsuits for unlawful detainment under the 4th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
A policy statement from the Florida Sheriffs Association states that, “in cases where a sheriff’s office has been sued for honoring an ICE detainer, neither DHS (Dept. of Homeland Security) nor any of its components have stepped forward with any type of support.”
Agrawal said no such suit has occurred against a Florida law enforcement agency, but they have occurred against law enforcement in other states.
Likewise, ICE does not reimburse law enforcement agencies for the costs of holding someone in jail for the additional time. “In Miami-Dade, they’ve quantified the financial impact to them of honoring ICE detainers and in their case its millions of dollars that they’ve spent on detentions,” said Agrawal.
“So what they have said is unless they are reimbursed, unless the federal government agrees to reimburse them for the cost of detention, they will not comply with retainer requests.”
The ACLU also opposes the bill over concerns that it will erode trust between police and immigrant communities making law enforcements’ job more difficult. The measure was passed by the full House on a vote of 80 to 38, but its Senate companion (SB 872) has not been heard in committee.
