Home California DHS Releases Immigration and Customs Enforcement Declined Detainer Outcome Report

DHS Releases Immigration and Customs Enforcement Declined Detainer Outcome Report

by ECT

WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security today issued the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Declined Detainer Outcome Report required by President Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order, Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States, signed on January 25.

During the week of January 28, 2017, through February 3, 2017, ICE issued 3,083 detainers throughout the United States. Meanwhile, 206 detainers issued by ICE were declined by jurisdictions throughout the country–including 1 at Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County where the citizen from Cambodia had a domestic violence conviction.
The 35-page report is comprised of four sections:
  • Section I: Highest Volume of Detainers Issued to Non-Cooperative Jurisdictions between January 28, 2017, and February 3, 2017
  • Section II: Jurisdictions with Recorded Declined Detainers Broken Down by Individuals Released between January 28, 2017, and February 3, 2017
  • Section III: Table of Jurisdictions that have Enacted Policies which Limit Cooperation with ICE
  • Section IV: Report Scope and Data Fidelity

Editors Note:

What is a Detainer?
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issues detainers to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to provide notice of its intent to assume custody of a removable alien detained in federal, state, or local custody. A detainer requests that the law enforcement agency notify ICE as early as practicable – ideally at least 48 hours – before a removable alien is released from criminal custody and briefly maintain custody of the alien for up to 48 hours to allow DHS to assume custody for removal purposes.

What is a Declined Detainer?
When law enforcement agencies fail to honor immigration detainers and release a criminal alien onto the streets, they have declined an ICE detainer. This undermines ICE’s ability to protect public safety and carry out its mission. Federal immigration laws authorize DHS to issue detainers and provide ICE broad authority to detain removable aliens.

How is an individual placed under a Detainer?
When an individual is booked into custody by a law enforcement agency, his or her biometric data is automatically routed through federal databases to the FBI.  The FBI shares this information with ICE. If ICE has probable cause to suspect the individual is a removable alien, ICE sends a detainer to the law enforcement agency.

This report will be issued weekly to highlight jurisdictions that choose not to cooperate with ICE detainers or requests for notification, therefore potentially endangering Americans. ICE places detainers on aliens who have been arrested on local criminal charges or who are in local custody and for whom ICE possesses probable cause to believe that they are removable from the United States, so that ICE can take custody of the alien when he or she is released from local custody.

“When law enforcement agencies fail to honor immigration detainers and release serious criminal offenders, it undermines ICE’s ability to protect the public safety and carry out its mission,” said Acting ICE Director Thomas Homan. “Our goal is to build cooperative, respectful relationships with our law enforcement partners. We will continue collaborating with them to help ensure that illegal aliens who may pose a threat to our communities are not released onto the streets to potentially harm individuals living within our communities.”

The Declined Detainer Outcome Report is a weekly report that lists the jurisdictions that have declined to honor ICE detainers or requests for notification and includes examples of criminal charges associated with those released aliens. The report provides information on declined detainers and requests for notification for that reporting period. A jurisdiction’s appearance on this report is not an exclusive factor in determining a jurisdiction’s level of cooperation with ICE.

This report is intended to provide the public with information regarding criminal actions committed by aliens and any jurisdiction that ignores or otherwise failed to honor any detainers or requests for notification with respect to such aliens.

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