GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The Kent County sheriff says her department is cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, despite the federal agency taking aim at a new policy that requires judicial approval of detainment requests.
Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young told 24 Hour News 8 on Friday that since implementing the new policy in January, the jail has transferred inmates into ICE's custody under judicial warrants dozens of times.
A Thursday release fromICE slammed the new policy, saying that as a result, three people in the country illegally had been released from the jail because ICE presented the sheriff's department with an agency warrant rather than a judicial warrant. ICE said the policy strained "already overburdened federal courts" and that it was a "figment created by those who wish to undermine immigration enforcement."
Thepolicy change was sparkedby the case of Jilmar Ramos-Gomez, a U.S. citizen and Marine veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder who aswrongfully detainedfor three days in December.
"We came to the conclusion that there needed to be a judicial oversight inserted into that process to give us the assurance that somebody wasn't erroneously detained without due process," LaJoye-Young explained.
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