MINNEAPOLIS — Many immigrants in Minnesota are feeling fear and uncertainty surrounding possible mass deportations.
G is an undocumented woman who agreed to speak with WCCO on the condition of anonymity.
Her family came to the U.S. illegally from Mexico more than 20 years ago when she was a baby.
She’s now a college graduate and she pays taxes.
Still, G says her parents only recently felt settled enough to decorate their home.
“They started painting the walls,” she said. “They started adding Minnesota stuff. As an immigrant, you don’t fully know what to trust and not to trust.”
G says the political climate feels a lot more scary now than in the past.
“I felt like we could hide behind other topics that were in the forefront of politics, and now we’re like the focus suddenly,” she said.
G has never had an encounter with ICE agents, but she’s anxious about who might be working with them.
Emails obtained by WCCO show the ICE office in St. Paul reached out to the Sibley County Sheriff in November about meeting to “discuss the benefits of working with ICE” for possible housing.
Sibley County says it declined the meeting.
No law enforcement agencies in Minnesota have the authority to act as immigration officers.
ICE has agreements with the jails in Elk River in Sherburne County, Albert Lea in Freeborn County and Willmar in Kandiyohi County to use them as detention facilities for holding detainees.
The sheriffs of those counties declined WCCO’s interview requests.
Sherburne County says it no longer has a contract with ICE guaranteeing them a minimum number of beds. A spokesperson says there are typically no more than a couple ICE detainees in their jail on any given day.
Kandiyohi County Sheriff Eric Tollefson said in an email, “[Our] jail has been providing safe, secure housing for ICE detainees for over 22 years. ICE inspects our facility 4 times a year and holds us to a higher standard of care than the MN DOC. I cannot share population numbers, however, we have an operating capacity of 190 and we will house for local (Kandiyohi County), other MN counties, DOC, and ICE, that all share in our population throughout the year.”
Freeborn County Sheriff Ryan Shea said in an email, “The ICE detainees are integrated with the rest of our population and categorized based upon high, medium, and low risk. I cannot share population numbers, however, we have an operating capacity of 133 and we will house for local (Freeborn County), other MN counties, DOC, and ICE, that all share in our population throughout the year.”
A spokesperson with ICE shared this information on its detention facilities:
- ICE housing decisions are individualized on a case-by-case basis and reassessed regularly. A guaranteed minimum number may be associated with an ICE facility, when ultimately, the number of people placed in ICE detention will be determined by operational requirements or guidance.
- The agency complies with all agreed upon terms and conditions stipulated within facility contracts, including guaranteed minimums. All contractors are required to comply with performance requirements outlined in the contract’s performance work statement. In general, ICE continues to assess contractual provisions, obligations, and terms associated with its detention network.
- ICE enters detention contracts with guaranteed minimum rates or monthly operating cost pricing to ensure staffing levels and conditions are appropriate at varying population levels.
- Detention contracts that have guaranteed minimum rates or monthly operating cost pricing are not unique to ICE detention – their usage is a common practice among federal agencies that routinely contract for detention space, including the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and the U.S. Marshals Service, and allow the federal government to procure beds at a reduced rate, thereby saving taxpayer money while giving the contractor the capability to predict the number of detainees held on a regular basis allowing for appropriate scheduling of the proper number of medical and detention personnel.
In a statement to WCCO, Army Capt. Andrea Tsuchiya with the Minnesota National Guard said the Guard “has not received any orders regarding immigrant deportation or any requests for assistance in a mission of that nature. We remain ‘always ready, always there’ to serve our state and nation when called upon.”
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