Teton County Illegal Immigrant Sanctuary Status
Since February 2023, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) has issued 118 detainer requests to Teton County Sheriff Matt Carr’s Office, asking the local agency to hold illegal immigrants in the jail for up to 48 hours until ICE could take over custody. According to an ICE statement, 103 of those detainers fell apart after Teton County Sheriff’s Office let the suspects go before ICE could get them.
“Additionally,” the statement continues, “Teton County Sheriff’s Office does not notify (ICE’s operation) before releasing noncitizens from their custody, limiting (our) ability to take timely action on these cases.”
Teton County Sheriff’s Office is responsible for allowing illegal immigrants to slip away before they can be dealt with by the proper authorities.
Wyoming’s U.S. Representative Hageman has recently brought light to the subject:
“Teton County does not honor lawfully issued ICE detainers. Teton County has released criminal illegal aliens despite the fact that ICE has requested them to be held pursuant to U.S. immigration law,” wrote Hageman. “It is my understanding that every other county in Wyoming honors ICE detainer requests; the very ones that Teton County refuses to acknowledge. Why is it that it’s Teton County that is having this issue?” asked Hageman.
She said some of the illegal immigrants were arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated or sex crimes.
“The people in Teton County and the surrounding area should be terribly concerned that (authorities are) releasing illegal aliens into the community, that have criminal records or that have been arrested for things that would actually qualify for them to at least go through the process for deportation,” Hageman said.
ICE also reported in a statement that things haven’t worked smoothly between the two agencies since an official talk with Democrat Sheriff Matt Carr on Feb. 22, 2023. The statement explained that Sheriff Carr informed ICE that the Sheriff’s Office would only detain noncitizens based on a court request accompanied by a judge’s signature and that the sheriff’s office was pulling out of its intergovernmental service contract with ICE’s operations team.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement currently lists Teton County as a non-cooperative sanctuary jurisdiction.
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