ICE corrects record for some Pennsylvania jurisdictions
In this Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017, photo released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shows foreign nationals being arrested this week during a targeted enforcement operation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) aimed at immigration fugitives, re-entrants and at-large criminal aliens in Los Angeles. (Charles Reed/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via AP)
The changes appeared two weeks after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials acknowledged and apologized for errors in a report about responses to detainer requests.
Most Pennsylvania counties won’t hold jail inmates for Immigration and Customs Enforcement without a warrant.
They basically can’t due to the liability potential established by a 2014 federal court decision.
Reasons aside, any law enforcement agency that declines a detainer request is now being called out in weekly reports as per President Donald Trump’s executive order.
ICE’s so-called declined detainer outcome reports were initiated amid federal officials’ threats to claw back or withhold federal funding from so-called “sanctuary cities” (a term which still hasn’t been legally defined).
The first report erroneously stated that Franklin County declined detainer requests during a week when inmates were, in fact, transferred into ICE custody.
ICE now blames the mistake on there being multiple Franklin Counties in other states.
In Chester, jail officials told ICE they didn’t have custody of the person being sought by the agency. This showed up as a refusal on the report. But it turns out ICE was wrong about the location. The person was incarcerated elsewhere, according to the agency’s correction posted online last Thursday.
Philadelphia also contested information in the first report, but hasn’t been in touch with ICE about the matter, says spokeswoman Ajeenah Amir.
The agency hasn’t responded to questions about why the corrections, which weren’t limited to Pennsylvania jurisdictions, took nearly two weeks.
But it will temporarily stop publishing the reports to try to figure out how to minimize the errors going forward, according to The New York Times.
“The DDOR has already sparked important conversations between ICE and law enforcement agencies across the nation, and the revised report will add to this discussio,” wrote ICE spokeswoman Sarah Rodriguez in an email confirming the temporary halt.
Editor’s note: This post has been updated to add information about ICE’s plans to stop publishing declined detainer outcome reports.
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