Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) recently claimed that Minnesota’s Department of Corrections was cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement prior to the deployment of federal law enforcement to his state. The governor, however, did not address the fact that the largest jail in his state — which is under local control in Minneapolis — is actively refusing to work with immigration officials.
“The pretext for all this is the Trump administration’s insistence that our immigration laws would otherwise go unenforced,” Walz wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Monday. “The administration claims that Minnesota jails release ‘the worst of the worst.’ In reality, the Minnesota Department of Corrections honors all federal and local detainers by notifying Immigration and Customs Enforcement when a person committed to its custody isn’t a U.S. citizen.”
While Minnesota law does compel the state’s Department of Corrections to notify ICE when an immigrant convicted of a felony is slated for release, every detention center in the state is not operated by the department.
The Hennepin County Public Safety Facility in Minneapolis, the state’s largest jail, operates under the jurisdiction of the Hennepin County sheriff’s office. While the jail had historically assisted immigration enforcement, that partnership has been gradually wound down by former Sheriff Dave Hutchinson. Now, under Sheriff Dawanna Witt, the jail’s policy is to refuse to work with ICE, according to the New York Times.
“Everyone wants to see our immigration laws enforced,” Walz wrote Monday. “That isn’t what is happening in Minnesota. In recent weeks, masked agents have abducted children. They have separated children from their parents. They have racially profiled off-duty police officers. They have aggressively pulled people over and demanded to see their papers. They have broken into the homes of elderly citizens without warrants to drag them outside in freezing temperatures. That isn’t effective law enforcement.”
Most sheriffs in the state lack official policies regarding how their departments ought to approach cooperation with ICE, providing flexibility to either comply or obstruct. Law enforcement officials in at least seven of Minnesota’s 87 counties have agreed to work with ICE, the New York Times reported — meaning most counties in the state don’t have explicit agreements to turn over illegal immigrants to ICE, as Walz implied was a widespread practice.
Walz’s office did not respond to a request for comment.