Sheriff: No authority to detain migrants
Wilmot responds to Gosar’s request that he arrest asylum-seekers
Yuma County Sheriff Leon Wilmot told Rep. Paul Gosar that he does not have the authority to honor the congressman’s request to detain asylum-seeking migrants that are being released in Yuma and San Luis.
Due to time limits and COVID-19 restrictions that affect the capacity of Border Patrol holding facilities in Yuma, migrants are being released locally, instead of being transported to Phoenix shelters.
The migrants that are being set free have been processed and screened for active criminal warrants and COVID-19 infection. They have been given paperwork that allows them to be in-country while awaiting final processing or a court date. Migrants have the option to travel and the vast majority are trying to reach other U.S. cities.
Gosar, in a Wednesday letter to Wilmot and Gov. Doug Ducey, asked the sheriff to “intercept these aliens and hold them in prison until they can be tested, quarantined, and then returned to their home countries. The general population of Arizona should be not subjected to this mass event that will spread infected aliens throughout the state. It is beyond reckless for the Border Patrol to take this action,” Gosar said.
The congressman stated “there is no adequate plan to screen or quarantine aliens for COVID-19.” He blasted the Border Patrol’s “abrupt reversal of policy” in declaring its intention to release 50 migrants every day into Yuma County.
“Where these illegal aliens go after their ‘release’ is anyone’s guess. Phoenix. Prescott. San Diego. These are super-spreader events that will go off daily. If we are to take seriously the State and the County’s efforts to rein in the pandemic, then releasing 50 potentially positive cases every day into Arizona is a threat to
public health and constitutes an emergency,” Gosar wrote.
He also noted that “as of the time of this writing, Yuma County has suffered 3,6127 cases and 758 deaths. This is not the time to release super spreaders into Yuma County. There should never be a time for this.”
In his response, Wilmot stated that “as the Sheriff of Yuma County, I am tasked with enforcing state law and keeping the peace in our community. These duties do not give me the statutory authority to honor Congressman Gosar’s request to intercept aliens released into the community by the Federal Government who has given them documents giving them permission to be in this country.”
In addition, the sheriff noted that the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office detention facility “only houses illegal aliens (and will continue to do so) who have been accused of committing State crimes.”
Wilmot, however, said he shares “concerns about the lack of planning or consideration of the public impact the change in policy leading to the release of these individuals into our communities will bring.”
Nevertheless, Wilmot said, he was pleased to learn from local Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol partners that they are “working diligently to screen these individuals to protect us from potential criminals. I am glad to know that they are at least being screened medically prior to release and anyone who is identified as a potential health risk is taken for medical treatment.
“I do however remain alarmed at the potential this new policy has to quickly overwhelm our resources with illegal aliens not being rapidly tested for COVID prior to release at the community level and then utilizing public transportation across the United States to their final destinations. The ancillary impact is that our citizens may want for the services that have been consumed by the individuals being released after illegally crossing our border.”
Wilmot also explained that for years he has advocated for strong border security and for the federal government to take responsibility for enforcing immigration law. “As a border Sheriff, I work with and communicate with our Federal partners at Border Patrol and ICE on a nearly daily basis. I also work with my counterparts in the Southwest Border Sheriff’s Association, the Western States Sheriffs Association and the National Sheriffs Association to formulate good policy on all matters related to law enforcement. One of those matters is often border security and the impact illegal immigration has on our local communities. We often communicate with the Federal policy makers and seek to make our positions heard.”
He said he is frustrated when those policymakers make decisions and enact policies “that impact us on a local level without first having communicated with us.”
Wilmot noted that he and fellow sheriffs, on Feb. 17, presented the U.S. Department of Homeland Security with several concerns relating to asylum seekers, including the lack of “scientific and medical rationale” behind the decision to release migrants with no accurate COVID-19 testing or tracking during a pandemic. They equated the migrant releases to “human rights violations to communities” due to resource shortages in the communities where migrants are being released. “DHS is not considering that communities are at a breaking point. The lack of consultation with local communities will put families and children at enhanced risk of shortfalls of social services. It is not credible that DHS leadership is properly prepared to undertake this effort and local communities will bear the brunt of the consequences,” Wilmot wrote.
“DHS leadership promised transparency and cooperation with local communities, but now is exposing communities to a major health crisis into those communities and potentially to migrants themselves once they are released.”
The sheriffs asked DHS whether local hospitals would be tasked with addressing medical care when COVID-19 “inevitably is spread further” and who will pay for this increased medical care. They also questioned how migrants are being screened for human trafficking, sex assault victims and potential gang affiliation.
“Is this the new precedent for how the unavoidable rush of thousands of more migrants will be handled in the ensuing months?” Wilmot wrote. “This is in effect going to be an unfunded fiscal drain on local communities including law enforcement who do not have the resources to absorb the results of this decision and the effects of this new precedent.”
Wilmot said that the sheriffs await a response from DHS.
Gosar, in his letter, said the state should consider using FEMA money to offset the costs for the apprehension and treatment of the migrants. He noted that trillions of dollars in COVID-19 relief is intended to prevent the transmission of the virus.
“Having the Border Patrol release hordes of infected aliens into our country is reckless and contrary to every law and protocol in place. I will use my best efforts to get additional funding into Arizona to address these matters,” Gosar stated.