The Department of Homeland Security challenged Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to start cooperating with ICE to turn over illegal immigrants with criminal records from his prisons and jails, saying he’s released hundreds of them back onto the streets over the last year.
DHS said nearly 470 were released since President Trump took office. And the department said Minnesota is holding more than 1,360 others right now who are subject to a deportation “detainer” from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“It is common sense. Criminal illegal aliens should not be released back onto our streets to terrorize more innocent Americans,” said Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary at DHS.
The call to cooperate comes as tensions between the feds and the state have boiled over as ICE officers scour the city searching for deportation targets.
Mr. Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey have been vehement in demanding ICE retreat.
But Homeland Security officials say they have to send ICE into communities to get people because they can’t count on the state or the city to turn over criminal migrants being released from their custody.
At issue are detainers, which are the requests ICE makes to gain custody.
Sanctuary jurisdictions often refuse to cooperate with those detainer requests.
The sanctuaries say they fear poisoning their own relations with their immigrant communities if they comply with detainer requests. They say if the federal government wants cooperation, it should pursue criminal charges and get a judicial warrant.
ICE counters that deportation is a civil matter and no criminal warrant is possible.
The resulting standoff means migrants with criminal records get released, and ICE then goes into communities looking for them — and then picks up other migrants it encounters along the way. Those so-called “collateral” arrests anger the local politicians, who dig their heels in more.
Ms. McLaughlin highlighted some of the ICE target migrants she said have been released on Mr. Walz’s watch. They included Leny Odemel Ramirez-Santos, a Honduran charged with fondling a child; Puol Both, a citizen of Sudan convicted of making terroristic threats, burglary, first-degree aggravated robbery and larceny; and German Adriano Llangari Inga, an Ecuadoran charged with homicide — negligent manslaughter with a vehicle.
