Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita filed a lawsuit July 11 against Monroe County Sheriff Ruben Marté over a county directive regarding federal immigration detention, claiming it violates an Indiana law requiring cooperation with federal immigration officials.
Marté received a letter from Rokita in May threatening legal action if Rokita did not receive notice that a previous version of the policy had been rescinded by July 1.
According to the lawsuit, Marté put a revised version of the policy into effect, now known as MCSO-12, on June 29.
The Indiana Daily Student could not locate MCSO-12, but Monroe County Attorney Justin Roddye told Indiana Public Media that the policy states: “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.”
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to an IDS request for comment.
Rokita’s May 14 letter and July 11 lawsuit claim the directive violates a federal statute which prohibits states from “enacting or implementing restrictions on taking certain actions regarding information of citizenship or immigration status,” including communication and cooperation with federal officials and the exchange of information with other government entities. The lawsuit seeks “an order compelling Sheriff Marté and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office to comply with Indiana Law.”
A new state law signed by Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb in March, which Rokita cited in both the letter and the lawsuit, gives Rokita the authority to take legal action against government bodies and universities which don’t comply with “statues requiring cooperation with federal immigration officials,” as of July 1.
The previous version of the Monroe County directive, which was replaced by MCSO-12, gives the Sheriff “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” and allows for undocumented immigrants charged with low-level crimes to be released from jail without being held for federal immigration officials. The policy has been part of Monroe County Jail directives since 2014 and was reviewed and re-approved by then-sheriff Brad Swain in 2018.
In 2020, according to the Herald-Times and Indiana Public Media, Swain said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials would have access to fingerprint information collected by the department and could still request Monroe County hold a detainee for federal immigration officials up to the federal limit of 48 hours. He said his administration would continue to honor such requests and existing ICE flags on record, although there is no signed agreement between ICE and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
Rokita filed a similar lawsuit against the City of East Chicago on July 9 over its 2017 “Welcoming City” ordinance, which made it a “sanctuary city,” a city that protects undocumented immigrants from deportation. The July 9 lawsuit similarly claims the East Chicago ordinance violates Indiana law by “restricting the enforcement of federal immigration laws to less than the full extent permitted by federal law." This lawsuit follows a letter he sent to the city in May.
Though the Indiana law Rokita cites in his lawsuits against Monroe County and the City of East Chicago has technically banned “sanctuary cities” since 2011, multiple courts around the country, including a federal district court, have since found similar bans to be unconstitutional. In 2020, a local immigrant advocacy group sought to stop the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department from honoring any federal immigration detainers, claiming that doing so violates Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure.
Rokita also sent letters to the cities of Gary and West Lafayette in May but has not yet pursued legal action against either city.
