
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita filed a lawsuit against a northern Indiana county police department and its sheriff over an alleged “persistent practice of refusing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.”
Nine detainer requests sent to the St. Joseph County Police Department between March and September of 2024 were "not complied with and as a result, thwarted ICE's efforts to apprehend the legal aliens that were in this county," Rokita's office alleged.
“This deliberate decision to not cooperate with federal immigration authorities is giving safe harbor to criminal aliens that need to be removed from our country and this county, it is making St. Joseph County act as a magnet to attract more illegals to want to come and live here and commit crime here, crime that hurts law abiding citizens, including our children," Rokita said as he announced the lawsuit at a press conference in South Bend. "It's sad, but the local law enforcement here has become part of the problem, a big part, and I refuse, as your attorney general, to just stand by and watch the lawlessness happen from law enforcement officials.”
The police department, writing in a Facebook post, said it wasn't aware of the lawsuit prior to Friday's press conference, and as of the afternoon, it hadn't received a copy.
"...He stated that we do not cooperate with ICE, which is false," the department said, in part, referring to Rokita. "We regularly communicate with ICE. When the jail receives a detainer or request from ICE, staff promptly informs immigration officials when that individual will be released on their criminal charges for detainment by ICE..."
The department also stated that "neither state or federal law require the Sheriff or the Jail to enforce federal immigration laws..."
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