November 4, 2024 • 10 mins
PottCo Sheriff Andy Brown explaining what they do there differently from DoCo that keeps them off the sanctuary county list that Omaha's on.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Scott vorgiez welcoming onto the program. The Sheriff of Pottawatamee County,
Andy Brown, joins us here on news radio eleven ten
kfa B. Sheriff, Good morning, Good morning, Scott. Than is
Halloween a problem in Pottawatamee County like apparently it has
been for one hundred years in Des Moines, where they
had to move trigger treating from Halloween to Beggar's Knight
(00:23):
because of rowdy teenagers.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Not generally a Halloween's usually pretty quiet in our county.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Okay, good well, we'll hopefully be able to continue that
here tonight. What I wanted to have you on the
program though, to discuss is what happened in Douglas County
and other cities and counties across the country. In twenty
twenty one, Douglas County, along with others, ended their contracts
with Immigration Customs Enforcement ICE. These were contracts or contacts
(00:53):
to pardon me, contracts to detain criminal illegal immigrants. In
pottawatame County, it was decided not to end that contract
with ICE. Why not?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well, I believe that somebody has to step up and
house these illegal aliens. And I want to believe that,
you know, we have the capability of doing that. Also,
it gives a tax break to our taxpayers here because
we also are able to secure federal funding because we
have a large contract with the US Marshals and ICE
(01:29):
to house prisoners, and it gives the citizens a tax break.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Explain how that works. You arrest someone and then what happens.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
So I mean if we if like our deputies are
Council of Police officers or state patrol would arrest somebody,
they would just bring them into our facility and we
hold them and then of course ICE would put a
detainer on them. The majority of our inmates are housed
are US Marshals and ICE agents bringing illegals into our
facility from other areas because we're the you know, housing
(02:00):
facilities for them and we're the closest people to get
them to federal court in the Oma metro area.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
So, you arrest someone, you find their immigration status in
this country to be sketchy at best, and you contact ICE,
and what is that conversation?
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Like, usually our booking officers or classification officers will contact
ICE just letting them know that we have somebody either
under a John Doe or a social Security number or
name that we can't find in the system. Then ICE
will come put a detain around them. Why they verify
their identity.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Now see I've mentioned this a few times here in
the last few weeks that Douglas County used to be
able to do what you're doing in Pottawatamee County and
no longer does that. And someone said, well, that's because
ICE takes their sweet time in getting to you, and
you can only hold someone for so long, and if
I do, ICE doesn't get there, then you've got to
release the person. Has that been your experience in working
(02:58):
with ICE.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
No, it has. They're usually pretty prompt on getting detainers
put on people. I mean we'll hold them for you know,
a day or two to get that taken care of,
but usually they're done within hours.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Okay, so glad to hear that. So you got someone
ICE comes out and then what you They say, Yeah,
we've got concerns about this individual as well, maybe they're
on some sort of watch list or they've potentially committed crimes.
But ICE doesn't exactly have a facility to detain them,
at least not anywhere around here. So they pay Potawatamee
(03:33):
County to keep these individuals in the local correctional facilities.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Correct, Yeah, we have a contract with the federal government,
you know, mainly Ice and US Marshals that we will
hold certain amount of prisoners for them. Why they find
either they go through federal court or they are deported
and we hold them here.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
And how much does Potawatamie County get from our federal
government to have this contract with them as and customs enforcement?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
So our contract is confidential, but I can tell you
that it's millions of dollars a year. I mean, we're
not talking tens of millions, but it's that in that
range where we get X amount of dollars per day
per inmates, and we usually hold approximately one hundred inmates
for them every every day.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
So you're any current day, you could have about one
hundred potential criminal illegal aliens and custody in Potawatamee County.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
That's correct. Yeah, our jail holds three hundred and three
inmates that we I mean, we want to guarantee them
you know, under fifty bet around fifty bets, but we
usually hold more than that because they don't have any
place to take them, and we will take whatever they
have for us.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
In other words, you're you're detaining more than your contract states,
you're getting paid more on top of that because other areas,
perhaps Douglas County, Nebraska, doesn't do this anymore. So how
is it that if someone's arrested here in Douglas County
and the same concerns about immigration status and criminal behavior
are there, what does ICE call you and tell Douglas
(05:07):
County take them over to see Sheriff Brown and Potawatamie.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
I'm not exactly sure how that extradition works at Douglas
County is the ones that pick them up. But I mean,
of course the US marshalls have an interstate compact where
they can transport across the river without having proper extraditions.
So when it comes to, you know, one of Sheriff
Hansen's deputies arrest ICE, I would assume that they would
contact ICE and they transport them over here for them.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
So you detain for other communities, but you probably don't
know exactly where everyone is coming for, but it's coming from.
But it sounds like you're at about double what you're
currently contracted for. So if is that reflected in lower
taxes for the community.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Do you say, I would hope so, because of course,
you know, the money goes to our Board of Supervisors,
and they're the ones that you know, the fiscal agents
on that and I would assume that they, you know,
use that money for lower property taxes because I know
for many, many, many years they've not raised the levee
and if anything, they've lowered it. So I feel like
(06:12):
our property taxes and probably some of the county employee
salaries are paid by federal dollars.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Do you have a guess on how much Douglas County
could make if we entered back into a contract with ICE.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
I guess it just depends on what your bord of
directions would like to do or how many beds they
would open up to them. But like I said, we're
we're usually holding you know, ninety two hundred meters a day,
and we're you know, into the millions, So I would
assume if they would take on more than that, probably
tens of millions dollars, that would be a relief for
(06:47):
your taxpayers.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
We're talking here with Potawatamie County Sheriff Andy Brown on
news radio eleven ten kfab who needs to make the
decision on all this. I mean, this isn't something that you,
as Sheriff Potawatamie County decided. Because people are probably thinking, well,
why doesn't Sheriff Hanson here and Douglas County just do this?
That's that's not how this works. Who needs to make
that decision?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Well, in Iowa on ninety nine, sheriffs that are in
Iowa are in control of the jail, and we can
say if we want better limits in there or not.
Of course we do it because I feel like it's
a justly responsible thing to do for our taxpayers to
get a bit of a relief for their property taxes.
But when it comes to Nebraska, there are a few
(07:30):
agencies out there that are controlled by a Board of
Corrections and bard of supervisors, and the sheriff don't have
control of the jail. So with me being one of them,
I do it because of the tax break. But when
it comes to Sheriff Hanson, I assume that he would
have to probably go to the Board of Corrections and
say that this needs to be done for a tax break.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
I've read this letter on the air a few times
here dated September twenty second, twenty twenty one, and it
comes from Michael Myers, not the Halloween character, appropriately enough,
but Michael Myers, Director of Corrections for Douglas County, and
it says this letter serves as written notice of Douglas
County's intent to terminate our agreement with ICE. We've determined
(08:13):
that continuing this agreement is no longer in the best
interests of the Department of Corrections or Douglas County on
our all terms. The agreement for a peid one hundred
and twenty days from today's day, per Article nine of
our agreement on tact. Me with any concerns you have
regarding this matter, respectfully, Michael Myers, Director of Corrections. This
came in September of twenty twenty one. Interestingly enough, throughout
(08:33):
the summer there of twenty twenty one, a lot of
different communities made the same decision. This was in the
first year of the Biden Harris administration. It's caused some people,
myself included, to suggest that there was pressure put on
communities to end detentions, to end these contacts contracts with ICE.
(08:55):
Was there pressure put on you to end these detentions?
Speaker 2 (08:59):
No, there's surb been contacted by anybody the onety need
to suspend our contract with the with ICE. So that
has not happened here.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Any idea why in twenty twenty one communities like Douglas County,
Nebraska all suddenly decided to end these contracts with ICE.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Honestly, I would have no idea why that would be.
I mean, there is a little bit of red tape,
don't get me wrong when it comes to housing federal inmates,
because there are regular inspections and sometimes aren't you jump
through when it comes to, you know, things you have
to start tracting in your jail in order them to
keep the contract going. I'm not sure if Douglas County
(09:38):
had that issue where they might have had too many
violations and they thought maybe it was an uphill battle
to try to get those incompliance. That's the only thing
I can think of.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
You've got your own worries here in pot of Watamee County,
But when you look at Douglas County, do you think
it's a fair assessment that they've been labeled a sanctuary county?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Yeah, I mean I would say that, especially if you're
you know, a fear border of Corrections is not wanting
to you know, house criminal aliens. I don't know why
they wouldn't want to do that.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
This is something for the Douglas County Board Border Commissioners
to take up. Potawatamee County Sheriff Andy Brown, I'll let
you get back to your responsibilities on your side of
the river here. Happy Halloween. I hope everything stays safe
there in Council Bluffs and across your county tonight. Thank
you very much for the time for us this morning
here on eleven ten KFAB.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
You meh, thank you. Scott By Mornings nine to eleven
on news radio eleven ten KFAB
Scott vorgiez welcoming onto the program. The Sheriff of Pottawatamee County,
Andy Brown, joins us here on news radio eleven ten
kfa B. Sheriff, Good morning, Good morning, Scott. Than is
Halloween a problem in Pottawatamee County like apparently it has
been for one hundred years in Des Moines, where they
had to move trigger treating from Halloween to Beggar's Knight
(00:23):
because of rowdy teenagers.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Not generally a Halloween's usually pretty quiet in our county.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Okay, good well, we'll hopefully be able to continue that
here tonight. What I wanted to have you on the
program though, to discuss is what happened in Douglas County
and other cities and counties across the country. In twenty
twenty one, Douglas County, along with others, ended their contracts
with Immigration Customs Enforcement ICE. These were contracts or contacts
(00:53):
to pardon me, contracts to detain criminal illegal immigrants. In
pottawatame County, it was decided not to end that contract
with ICE. Why not?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well, I believe that somebody has to step up and
house these illegal aliens. And I want to believe that,
you know, we have the capability of doing that. Also,
it gives a tax break to our taxpayers here because
we also are able to secure federal funding because we
have a large contract with the US Marshals and ICE
(01:29):
to house prisoners, and it gives the citizens a tax break.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Explain how that works. You arrest someone and then what happens.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
So I mean if we if like our deputies are
Council of Police officers or state patrol would arrest somebody,
they would just bring them into our facility and we
hold them and then of course ICE would put a
detainer on them. The majority of our inmates are housed
are US Marshals and ICE agents bringing illegals into our
facility from other areas because we're the you know, housing
(02:00):
facilities for them and we're the closest people to get
them to federal court in the Oma metro area.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
So, you arrest someone, you find their immigration status in
this country to be sketchy at best, and you contact ICE,
and what is that conversation?
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Like, usually our booking officers or classification officers will contact
ICE just letting them know that we have somebody either
under a John Doe or a social Security number or
name that we can't find in the system. Then ICE
will come put a detain around them. Why they verify
their identity.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Now see I've mentioned this a few times here in
the last few weeks that Douglas County used to be
able to do what you're doing in Pottawatamee County and
no longer does that. And someone said, well, that's because
ICE takes their sweet time in getting to you, and
you can only hold someone for so long, and if
I do, ICE doesn't get there, then you've got to
release the person. Has that been your experience in working
(02:58):
with ICE.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
No, it has. They're usually pretty prompt on getting detainers
put on people. I mean we'll hold them for you know,
a day or two to get that taken care of,
but usually they're done within hours.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Okay, so glad to hear that. So you got someone
ICE comes out and then what you They say, Yeah,
we've got concerns about this individual as well, maybe they're
on some sort of watch list or they've potentially committed crimes.
But ICE doesn't exactly have a facility to detain them,
at least not anywhere around here. So they pay Potawatamee
(03:33):
County to keep these individuals in the local correctional facilities.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Correct, Yeah, we have a contract with the federal government,
you know, mainly Ice and US Marshals that we will
hold certain amount of prisoners for them. Why they find
either they go through federal court or they are deported
and we hold them here.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
And how much does Potawatamie County get from our federal
government to have this contract with them as and customs enforcement?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
So our contract is confidential, but I can tell you
that it's millions of dollars a year. I mean, we're
not talking tens of millions, but it's that in that
range where we get X amount of dollars per day
per inmates, and we usually hold approximately one hundred inmates
for them every every day.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
So you're any current day, you could have about one
hundred potential criminal illegal aliens and custody in Potawatamee County.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
That's correct. Yeah, our jail holds three hundred and three
inmates that we I mean, we want to guarantee them
you know, under fifty bet around fifty bets, but we
usually hold more than that because they don't have any
place to take them, and we will take whatever they
have for us.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
In other words, you're you're detaining more than your contract states,
you're getting paid more on top of that because other areas,
perhaps Douglas County, Nebraska, doesn't do this anymore. So how
is it that if someone's arrested here in Douglas County
and the same concerns about immigration status and criminal behavior
are there, what does ICE call you and tell Douglas
(05:07):
County take them over to see Sheriff Brown and Potawatamie.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
I'm not exactly sure how that extradition works at Douglas
County is the ones that pick them up. But I mean,
of course the US marshalls have an interstate compact where
they can transport across the river without having proper extraditions.
So when it comes to, you know, one of Sheriff
Hansen's deputies arrest ICE, I would assume that they would
contact ICE and they transport them over here for them.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
So you detain for other communities, but you probably don't
know exactly where everyone is coming for, but it's coming from.
But it sounds like you're at about double what you're
currently contracted for. So if is that reflected in lower
taxes for the community.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Do you say, I would hope so, because of course,
you know, the money goes to our Board of Supervisors,
and they're the ones that you know, the fiscal agents
on that and I would assume that they, you know,
use that money for lower property taxes because I know
for many, many, many years they've not raised the levee
and if anything, they've lowered it. So I feel like
(06:12):
our property taxes and probably some of the county employee
salaries are paid by federal dollars.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Do you have a guess on how much Douglas County
could make if we entered back into a contract with ICE.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
I guess it just depends on what your bord of
directions would like to do or how many beds they
would open up to them. But like I said, we're
we're usually holding you know, ninety two hundred meters a day,
and we're you know, into the millions, So I would
assume if they would take on more than that, probably
tens of millions dollars, that would be a relief for
(06:47):
your taxpayers.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
We're talking here with Potawatamie County Sheriff Andy Brown on
news radio eleven ten kfab who needs to make the
decision on all this. I mean, this isn't something that you,
as Sheriff Potawatamie County decided. Because people are probably thinking, well,
why doesn't Sheriff Hanson here and Douglas County just do this?
That's that's not how this works. Who needs to make
that decision?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Well, in Iowa on ninety nine, sheriffs that are in
Iowa are in control of the jail, and we can
say if we want better limits in there or not.
Of course we do it because I feel like it's
a justly responsible thing to do for our taxpayers to
get a bit of a relief for their property taxes.
But when it comes to Nebraska, there are a few
(07:30):
agencies out there that are controlled by a Board of
Corrections and bard of supervisors, and the sheriff don't have
control of the jail. So with me being one of them,
I do it because of the tax break. But when
it comes to Sheriff Hanson, I assume that he would
have to probably go to the Board of Corrections and
say that this needs to be done for a tax break.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
I've read this letter on the air a few times
here dated September twenty second, twenty twenty one, and it
comes from Michael Myers, not the Halloween character, appropriately enough,
but Michael Myers, Director of Corrections for Douglas County, and
it says this letter serves as written notice of Douglas
County's intent to terminate our agreement with ICE. We've determined
(08:13):
that continuing this agreement is no longer in the best
interests of the Department of Corrections or Douglas County on
our all terms. The agreement for a peid one hundred
and twenty days from today's day, per Article nine of
our agreement on tact. Me with any concerns you have
regarding this matter, respectfully, Michael Myers, Director of Corrections. This
came in September of twenty twenty one. Interestingly enough, throughout
(08:33):
the summer there of twenty twenty one, a lot of
different communities made the same decision. This was in the
first year of the Biden Harris administration. It's caused some people,
myself included, to suggest that there was pressure put on
communities to end detentions, to end these contacts contracts with ICE.
(08:55):
Was there pressure put on you to end these detentions?
Speaker 2 (08:59):
No, there's surb been contacted by anybody the onety need
to suspend our contract with the with ICE. So that
has not happened here.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Any idea why in twenty twenty one communities like Douglas County,
Nebraska all suddenly decided to end these contracts with ICE.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Honestly, I would have no idea why that would be.
I mean, there is a little bit of red tape,
don't get me wrong when it comes to housing federal inmates,
because there are regular inspections and sometimes aren't you jump
through when it comes to, you know, things you have
to start tracting in your jail in order them to
keep the contract going. I'm not sure if Douglas County
(09:38):
had that issue where they might have had too many
violations and they thought maybe it was an uphill battle
to try to get those incompliance. That's the only thing
I can think of.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
You've got your own worries here in pot of Watamee County,
But when you look at Douglas County, do you think
it's a fair assessment that they've been labeled a sanctuary county?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Yeah, I mean I would say that, especially if you're
you know, a fear border of Corrections is not wanting
to you know, house criminal aliens. I don't know why
they wouldn't want to do that.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
This is something for the Douglas County Board Border Commissioners
to take up. Potawatamee County Sheriff Andy Brown, I'll let
you get back to your responsibilities on your side of
the river here. Happy Halloween. I hope everything stays safe
there in Council Bluffs and across your county tonight. Thank
you very much for the time for us this morning
here on eleven ten KFAB.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
You meh, thank you. Scott By Mornings nine to eleven
on news radio eleven ten KFAB
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