Sheriff: Trump Wants Us To Break The Law

The Trump administration is pushing sheriffs to keep illegal immigrants in jail for longer than is constitutionally allowed—and it's putting sympathetic sheriffs in a tough spot.

BETSY WOODRUFF
08.19.17 8:21 AM ET

President Donald Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants has some sheriffs worried the White House is pushing them to break the law – demanding they violate the Fourth Amendment or face vilification from the commander-in-chief.

“It’s a total mess,” said Bob Gualtieri, the sheriff of Pinellas County, Fla. At issue is a complicated question: Should sheriffs keep undocumented immigrants in their jails for more time than otherwise necessary so that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers can pick them up to be deported?

The White House is demanding sheriffs do just that, by honoring ICE’s requests that sheriffs keep certain people locked up long enough for the agency to take them into custody. Those requests are called detainers. And many sheriffs would happily comply – except that federal courts have ruled repeatedly that the Fourth Amendment bars them from keeping an undocumented immigrant in jail who would otherwise go free.

“If we violate the law by doing what they ask us to do, we’re subjecting ourselves, no question, to civil liability and civil rights violations,” Gualtieri said.

He added that he spoke about the issue recently with Stephen Miller – a top White House advisor working on immigration – who didn’t seem to understand his Constitutional concerns.

“My takeaway from that conversation with Stephen Miller is that he was uninformed about this problem,” Gualtieri said. “I think that there are certain admin officials who think that these warrants detainees solve the problem, and are saying, ‘What are you sheriffs doing? Why aren’t you cooperating?’ when they don’t know that it is clearly a problem and that we can’t do it.”

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