Deportation scare sparks legal fight

| Orlando Sentinel

A case of mistaken identity — in which a Florida Keys resident said he was nearly deported to Jamaica — has sparked a legal fight over a new agreement between federal immigration authorities and many Florida law enforcement agencies on detaining inmates.

Civil rights groups filed suit last week against Monroe County’s sheriff on behalf of 50-year-old Peter Sean Brown, who said he was detained for deportation despite repeatedly telling officials at the county’s jail he was a U.S. citizen and had only been to the Caribbean country once on a cruise.

The litigation by the American Civil Liberties Union, Southern Poverty Law Center and other attorneys is the first legal challenge to a pilot cooperation agreement between dozens of Florida sheriffs and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which the civil rights organizations argue violates the Fourth Amendment.

The “basic ordering agreement” was first announced on Jan. 17, 2018, and has since been signed by 34 Florida counties — including Lake, Brevard, Polk and Seminole in Central Florida — and one county in Louisiana, according to ICE spokeswoman Tamara Spicer.

County jails that sign on to the program receive $50 for each inmate they agree to hold on behalf of ICE for up to 48 hours after the inmate has served his or her time for local charges.

According to a 2017 memo obtained by the SPLC through a records request, the Florida Sheriff ’s Association proposed the agreement as a solution to what it described as a national legal “standoff” over the use of federal ICE detainers.

A detainer, or ICE hold, is a request to county jails from the federal agency to hold inmates it considers to be unauthorized immigrants, even after they have served their time for state charges. Some Florida sheriffs, despite wanting to cooperate with the federal government, expressed concern they lacked the legal authority to honor the holds and were exposing themselves to liability.

“The current situation is that ICE asks the sheriff to hold the person under the sheriff ’s authority, for which none exists,” wrote Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri in an email to Florida sheriffs on April 21, 2017, before the BOA was made public. He added that under the agreement, “once the state detention ends THEY (ICE) hold the inmate under their authority in our jails.”

Brown, the Keys man, turned himself in to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office on April 5, for violating probation after he tested positive for marijuana, according to the lawsuit. Monroe is one of the 34 counties that signed the agreement.

When he was booked into the jail, his fingerprints were flagged by immigration authorities and an ICE detainer was issued after “biometric confirmation” showed Brown was eligible for deportation and had a final order of deportation against him, according to the suit.

The ICE detainer does not specify Brown’s fingerprints his detention.

He spent about three weeks in jail, repeatedly telling staff at the jail that he was a U.S. citizen and that he had been held under a “false immigration detainer,” the lawsuit claims. Brown says staff dismissed him, explaining they had no authority to cancel the ICE hold.

Brown was transferred April 27 to Krome Detention Center in Miami and released later that day.

“We believe the inherent flaw of the BOA is that it makes civil rights violations such as what happened to our plaintiff highly likely,” said Amien Kacou of ACLU Florida, one of the lead attorneys form why triggered on the lawsuit. “What’s outrageous is that [law enforcement agencies] apply a sort of systematic refusal to take all of ICE’s responsibilities while at the same time exercising ICE’s power.”

In a statement, Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay said Brown’s detention was an “unfortunate” mistake by ICE and that local law enforcement “has been caught in the middle of a political argument regarding immigration.”

“It is important to also note that when an inmate is held under an ICE matter, I, as Sheriff, do not have the legal authority to release that person,” Ramsay said in the statement, adding that the Sheriff ’s Office “does not investigate immigration matters.”

Ramsay said Brown was detained for 12 hours by ICE, once he had served his time for violating probation. But Kacou said it’s still unclear to Brown’s lawyers how long he was actually held in local custody on ICE’s behalf before transferred to Krome.

The groups claim the BOA “puts a new gloss on local arrests for ICE” and that detainers do not constitute probable cause to hold an inmate. Brown is suing Ramsay for violating the Fourth Amendment and false imprisonment under state law, the lawsuit shows.

Kacou took issue with Ramsay’s response to the suit, suggesting agencies collaborating with the agreement are trying to understate their cooperation with the federal government.

“What [Ramsay]’s claiming is that he can make civil immigration arrests that he systematically refuses to investigate,” Kacou said. “It is a logical consequence to their attempt to have it both ways. … Local officials are not being turned into ICE agents, officially, but they’re still making arrests for ICE.” being