DoCo Sheriff's Policy on Illegal Immigration

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chatted with Ima Police Chief Toads Modern yesterday about the
issue of the city's cooperation with federal immigration authorities when
it comes to folks here illegally. And if he didn't
catch that, it's up on the podcast link Morning newspagekfab
dot com. And now I want to get the county perspective, sheriff,

(00:20):
Good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
You can find numerous sources online. The most recent one
I looked at was a Center for Immigration Studies that
lists Douglas County, Nebraska, as a sanctuary county. Two part
question number one, as far as you're concerned, is that true?
And number two does that affect you as an elected official?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
You know that I think that the definition of what
is a sanctuary county kind of undulates around the discussion,
you know, I mean, I think the chief had mentioned
yesterday you've got and I agree with him, you've got
some communities that don't cooperate with ICE at all, and
some communities that cooperate with ICE fully, and then a
lot of areas in the middle. And I think that
you know, probably where you see some of those designations

(01:06):
as a sanctuary county in Douglas County probably focuses more
on our correctional policy than our local law enforcement policy,
and I would imagine that that is dealing directly with
how how easy is it for our correctional facilities to
interact with ICE. I mean, here's the bottom line. You know,
it wasn't I think it was. In the fall, I

(01:26):
accompanied a large group of sheriffs who went down to
the southern border now in Texas that with their borders
are down there, met with the border patrol chiefs down there.
We got a problem. I mean, we've had on average,
I have a member of my team was present for
borders of our Homeans briefing here a couple of days
ago to sheriffs and chiefs. You know, we've had on
average one hundred thousand people plus during the four years

(01:49):
of the Biden administration streaming over the southern border. These
are just the ones we know about every month. Numbers
are staggering and and FBI Director Chris Ray has we
are at a stable or higher than nine to eleven
because of the risk of all these people that have
come over the border. And it's not just illegal aliens.

(02:09):
We're talking people with known terrorist ties, people that have
been prior to deport so many people that because we
don't have appropriate detention space in the US, the Biden
administration just released them into the US. They didn't return
them back over the border. And we're in a real
crisis right.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Now, no doubt. Well, for one thing, you answer to
the voters. And so what I want to know, I
guess we'll ask the discussion yesterday with Chief schmatter was
about suppose Tom Homan and his boys come in here
and say, hey, Sheriff got got we're conducting a raid
or an operation here in this area. We need your help.

(02:48):
Your answer to them is what sheriff.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Operating under the assumption that there is no always and
never never, For the most part, the answer is going
to be yes. I mean, unless the request for assistance
conflicts with our laws, our local laws or policies, or
our ethics. If any local law enforcement agency, federal state,
if they contact us and say they need assistance, very

(03:14):
likely they're going to get the assistance they need to
keep the community safe and to keep their officers safe. Now,
again that's the case by case. Like the sheriff said,
I can imagine, I can envision scenarios in which we
would tell a federal agency. Yeah, you know, we don't
either don't have demand power or that's not aligned with
our ethics when it comes to assisting ICE. You know,

(03:34):
we already work well with ICE, and so I would imagine,
especially knowing our local ICE leadership command, I don't think
they would put us in a position of asking us
to assist with something that would fly in a face
of law or our ethics.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Do you know where illegals are in the community?

Speaker 2 (03:50):
You know, local law enforcement does not, and there's for
a very good reason. The databases that ICE uses are
not accessible to local law enforcement unless local law enforcement
engages in the two eighty seven G program or something
like that, or they're a task force officer where they
have access to the federal databases. And so that's the

(04:11):
real challenge. A lot of people don't understand. Immigration law
is essentially a civil matter. First offense, coming over the
border illegally as a federal misdemeanor. Subsequent offenses is a
felony punishable by up to two years, but proving that status.
In order for a local law enforcement officer to attain someone,
you have to have probable cause it committed a crime,

(04:33):
and without the underlying data. Local law enforcement cannot enforce
those laws because they don't have that problem.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
But defiant aaron defined crime. In that context, speeding tech
is a violation, right, that's not a crime per se.
So what rises to the level of a crime, well.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
For local law enforcement, or rises to the level of
a crime, is as anything that's codified in state law
or city ordinance or maybe even a county ordinance. There's
a few of those that exists, but not many. Those
are the laws that local law enforcement have the lawful
ability to pursue and investigate and arrest. For I mean,

(05:12):
even if one of my deputies wants to charge someone
with a felony with a federal felony, they have to
go to a grand jury, testify in front of a
grand jury, and that process takes a long time. And
that's where the chief is right. You have these lines
of demarcation between federal law enforcement and state and local
law enforcement. And you know that's that's been that demarcation
for decades. But that does not mean that we don't

(05:34):
care about these issues. And I will tell you this.
I'm looking right now, gentlemen, at a booking sheet for
Douglas County Corrections and there's there's checkboxes here that any
officer that books someone into corrections has to fill out.
Interpreter needed yes no, US citizen yes no, and assigned
for Social Security numbers. And so the real question is,
you know, local law enforcement for the most part, especially

(05:56):
Douglas Kunty Sheriff's Office, we're here to do our part
to help us on illegal immigrants that are criminals, the
ones that are committing crimes in our communities. The real
discussion that needs to have next is with the county board,
who is the sheriff equivalent over Douglas Kinny Corrections, and
ask them about what is their interplay with ICE? Do
they cooperate with ICE when it comes to detainers? Is

(06:19):
it time to reconsider reactivating a contract with ICE so
that ICE can use Douglas Kinty Corrections as a temporary
detention facility and the taxpayers potentially could make tens of
millions of dollars in federal money if they do that.
So I think the next conversation to have is with
is with the county board, because corrections is really I
think where this is at.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Sheriff always good to have you on appreciate the time
appreciate it. Thank you, get back to cash and mad guys.
That's Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson here on have AB's
morning News