As of Thursday, the Clark County jail had 46 people housed there after being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (Aprile Rickert / LPM)
The Clark County, Indiana jail is now holding people detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. As of Thursday, they were holding 46 people who arrived last week.
As of Thursday, the Clark County jail in Jeffersonville was housing 46 people detained by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) under a recently modified agreement with the federal government.
It comes as President Donald Trump’s administration ramps up efforts to enforce immigration arrests and detentions.
Clark County Sheriff Scottie Maples said the sheriff's office recently finalized the agreement to house ICE detainees. The document shows it as a rider on an existing agreement to house federal inmates.
The first group, 46 women, arrived last week.
Maples said he met with them to help assure that they would be given proper care.
The changes come after the sheriff's office received a letter from the U.S. Marshals Service earlier this year asking for assistance.
“...The Southern District of Indiana has received requests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to support their ongoing efforts by potentially housing ICE detainees. Please let me know if your facility is willing to support ICE in this endeavor and the estimated amount of bedspace you could provide…” a portion of the letter reads.
An expansion of who Clark County holds
Maples said they made the decision to participate because he has the room and the jail is equipped to do it. He also said he wants to assist the federal government when he can. He said the jail met the qualifications and had to pass inspection before they could start taking people detained by ICE.
Maples said under the agreement he signed, the jail can take up to 150 people at a time, though he said they are limiting that to 75 at first to assess operations before accepting more. Maples said the sheriff’s office had the option to enroll officers in special ICE training that would allow them to make ICE arrests or place ICE holds on people already in custody for other issues. He felt the best option was to provide space to house people under detention.
“Nobody from my agency is actively arresting [ICE detainees] in Clark County,” Maples told LPM News. “We are not putting detainers on people. Nobody from my agency has the authority to arrest or put a detainer on anybody that comes into jail that they may believe…is an illegal immigrant. Only ICE has that authority.”
He also said he was glad to help prevent overcrowding at other facilities, which he said can be a strain on agencies and people being detained.
“If I have the room, I will offer the assistance,” he said. He added he has helped other local agencies before when they needed more space. He said as of this week, the Clark County jail had around 500 people in custody. The jail can hold upwards of 700 people.
According to a statement from Clark County Sheriff’s Office Assistant Chief Mark Grube, the duration of each detainee’s stay will be determined by an immigration judge.
Under the agreement, the federal government will pay $70 per day per ICE detainee — the same stipend paid to hold federal inmates in Clark County. The sheriff’s office can also bill for travel expenses. The money goes to the Clark County government, not the sheriff’s office.
Clark County Council President Brian Lenfert did not respond to a request for comment from LPM News by deadline.
Grube also said in his statement that the detainees are “provided access to resources and materials specific to their individual immigration circumstances, while also prioritizing their safety and well-being.”
He also said in the statement that the sheriff’s office “places the highest priority on public safety, transparency, and the equitable treatment of everyone under our supervision.”
The community reacts
A flurry of public comments followed a social media post of reporting from the News and Tribune earlier this week. Some people said they supported the sheriff’s decision to house ICE detainees, and the federal government’s increased actions to detain and deport people without legal immigration status.
Others criticized the decision and pointed to reports of people in other parts of the country being detained without due process.
Clark County resident Angela Chandler told LPM News she doesn’t like the idea of it, or that Clark County will be holding people who are in the country unlawfully but have no criminal record.
She said she was glad to know that the local officers won’t be acting as ICE agents, even though she said she respects the sheriff and hasn’t had issues with local police.
Maples, the sheriff, said earlier this week he does not know how the 46 ICE detainees were arrested. He also said while the sheriff’s office is in charge of facilitating the detainees’ federal court hearings, it doesn’t oversee them.
Lillian Rose, CEO of the Hispanic Connection of Southern Indiana, said she doesn’t think a local agency should be collaborating with ICE in this way, and that “the federal government should have its own holding facilities…,” she said.
Rose takes issue with additional facilities coming online, and the way immigration matters are being handled across the country right now.
“I'm just really, at this point, hoping that there is due process, which, as we have been seeing nationally, it’s not,” she said.
Rose said she and others at the organization support the proportional enforcement of punishment for people who commit crimes after they’ve been given due process.
“So criminals of any kind, we don't want them in this country, but they have to go through due process,” she said. “I mean, you have to prove that they are what they are…we've been doing that for years and expelling people. Why can't we continue doing that?”
And she’s concerned about news reports that many of the people who have been sent by the U.S. to a prison in El Salvador have no criminal records.
An Indiana bill requiring sheriffs to notify ICE when they have people in custody they believe may not be in the U.S. lawfully was sent to Gov. Mike Braun this week.
Maples said they were already cooperating with ICE before the recent change to hold ICE detainees, by notifying the agency if they had someone already in custody believed to not be in the U.S. lawfully. ICE agents would make a determination on putting a detainer on the person and would have 48 hours after their local charges were satisfied to take them to an ICE holding facility.
With the new classification, they can stay at the Clark County jail for that, which Maples said will save taxpayer money.
