U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are asking sheriffs in Southwest Colorado to notify them before undocumented inmates are released, and have issued requests that sheriffs hold specific undocumented inmates beyond their release time in violation of state law.
Federal agents served administrative arrest warrants at the La Plata County Jail on Feb. 13, in addition to requests that the jail notify ICE before the release of two inmates.
One inmate is facing a second charge of driving under the influence; the other was just sentenced on his fourth DUI charge.
“It’s a little complicated because I don’t know where I’ll be, what I’ll have there with me,” said Edgar Sillas-Contreras, who has four DUI convictions, pondering the possibility that he will be deported. “Nothing is known, there’s no information in this jail.”
The documents, signed by ICE agents Allsop and Koller, commanded any authorized immigration officer (which sheriff’s deputies are not) to arrest the two individuals. The administrative warrants are not formal federal arrest warrants signed by a judge. The agents also requested that the jail notify ICE at least 48 hours before the two inmates are to be released and that the jail hold those two inmates for up to 48 hours after they would have been released.
The request to hold the inmates is not one with which the jail can legally comply, Sheriff Sean Smith said. And the request to notify ICE is not one that the jail will comply with, he said, citing previous conflicts with immigration agents that eroded trust between the two agencies.
Referencing a 2019 law that set firm guardrails on how local law enforcement can collaborate with ICE, Smith said it would be a violation of state law for him to hold an individual beyond the time dictated by their local criminal case on the basis of a civil detainer request.
“I’m sure ICE is aware of what the Colorado law is,” he said. “I would hope they would not continue to ask us to violate it.”
The agency does distinguish that the detainers are requests, rather than orders.
However, Smith said that the requests confuse the issue, and he’s had to remind his staff of the statutory boundaries.
The sheriff recognizes that he may voluntarily comply with the request to notify ICE before an inmate is released, but is choosing not to. Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin told The Journal this week that he would comply with such requests.
Smith’s decision is informed by past conflicts.
On one occasion, federal agents showed up too late. An ICE agent impersonated a deputy and asked the subject to return to the jail under the false pretense that paperwork needed to be corrected. Smith previously told The Durango Herald that the conduct was “completely inappropriate.”
On another occasion, ICE removed a person out the back door of the jail after the family had posted a large cash bond and was waiting in the lobby. Jail staff members had to explain to the family that the Sheriff’s Office had to keep the bond and send it to the court, and that if ICE deported the individual, the money would be forfeited when the person failed to appear in court. The conflict nearly became physical.
“There have been other issues, but these highlight why I stopped providing notifications to ICE,” Smith said in a message to the Herald. “If they call and ask when an inmate is being released, and that information is available, we will provide this information just like we would to a member of the public.”
Information about the deportation cases was not available Friday, according to an ICE spokesman.
According to the detainer requests, ICE found probable cause that Sillas-Contreras, 25, is not authorized to be in the U.S. based on statements he made and or “other reliable evidence” that he lacks authorized status or is otherwise deportable. ICE issued a warrant for the arrest of a second inmate because he was already known to be in the country without proper authorization, according to federal records.
The detainers indicate that a final order of removal has not been issued for either inmate.
According to the ICE webpage explaining its use of detainers, the agency issues such documents when a person “poses a public safety or national security threat.” Often, according to the agency, that means when someone has committed a violent crime. Driving under the influence does not appear on the list of crimes for which the agency would generally submit a detainer.
Sillas-Contreras received a deferred judgment on a felony charge of driving under the influence with three priors, but was convicted on a fourth DUI count. Nobody was hurt in any of his DUI cases, nor in the two incidents related to the other inmate, according to court records.
The possibility of deportation scares him some, Sillas-Contreras said in an interview from the jail. The construction worker has a wife and two kids, all American citizens.
“It’s a little bit complicated for me to leave alone,” he said.
rschafir@durangoherald.com
