Monroe County Sheriff is sued by Indiana AG for their undocumented immigration policy

Bloomington, Indiana – In response to a county instruction about federal immigration detention, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita filed a lawsuit against Monroe County Sheriff Ruben Marté on July 11. Rokita claims the county direction violates an Indiana law that requires cooperation with federal immigration officers.

In May, Marté received a letter from Rokita threatening to take legal action if Rokita did not receive notification by July 1 that the policy had been repealed.

The lawsuit claims that on June 29, Marté implemented an updated version of the policy, which is currently known as MCSO-12.

The policy states that “MCSO employees shall not detain individual(s) solely based on a non-criminal/administrative ICE detainer” and “MCSO employees shall not hold an individual(s) beyond their scheduled release date based on a non-criminal/administrative ICE detainer,” according to Monroe County Attorney Justin Roddye, who spoke with Indiana Public Media after the Indiana Daily Student was unable to locate MCSO-12.

In response to an IDS request for comment, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office remained silent.
A federal statute that forbids states from “enacting or implementing restrictions on taking certain actions regarding information of citizenship or immigration status,” including cooperation and communication with federal officials and the sharing of information with other government entities, is allegedly violated by the directive, according to Rokita’s May 14 letter and July 11 lawsuit. “An order compelling Sheriff Marté and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office to comply with Indiana law” is what the complaint is requesting.

In the letter and the lawsuit, Rokita cited a new state law that, as of July 1, gives her the right to sue government agencies and educational institutions that violate “statutes requiring cooperation with federal immigration officials.” The law was signed by Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb in March.

Undocumented immigrants accused of low-level crimes may be released from jail without being held for federal immigration officials under the terms of the previous Monroe County directive, which was replaced by MCSO-12. The Sheriff is granted the “discretion to cooperate with federal immigration officials by detaining an individual on the basis of an immigration detainer after that individual becomes eligible for release under certain conditions.” Since 2014, the policy has been included in Monroe County Jail instructions. In 2018, then-sheriff Brad Swain reviewed and reapproved the policy.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers would have access to fingerprint data gathered by the department in 2020, according to Swain, who also said they could still ask Monroe County to hold a detainee for federal immigration officials for a maximum of 48 hours. These reports were reported by the Herald-Times and Indiana Public Media. Despite the lack of a formal contract between ICE and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, he declared that his administration will keep honoring such requests and any active ICE flags on file.

On July 9, Rokita filed a comparable complaint against the City of East Chicago about its “Welcoming City” statute from 2017, which designated the city as a “sanctuary city” that shields undocumented immigrants from deportation. In a similar vein, the lawsuit filed on July 9 asserts that the East Chicago rule “restricts the enforcement of federal immigration laws to less than the full extent permitted by federal law,” which is a violation of Indiana law. He wrote the city a letter in May, which prompted this lawsuit.

Although “sanctuary cities” have been officially outlawed since 2011 under the Indiana statute that Rokita uses as support in his litigation against Monroe County and the City of East Chicago, other courts nationwide, including a federal district court, have subsequently declared that such prohibitions are unconstitutional. The Monroe County Sheriff’s Department was challenged by a local immigrant advocacy group in 2020, arguing that it was violating the Fourth Amendment’s ban on arbitrary search and seizure by honoring any federal immigration detainers.

In May, Rokita also addressed letters to West Lafayette and Gary, although she hasn’t yet taken legal action against either city.