ICE in Champaign County

Today the News-Gazette had a breakdown of METCAD (Metropolitan Computer-Aided Dispatch) data on ICE notifications in the area over the past couple years:

Records show ICE activity on rise in Champaign County since 2016
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Champaign County has been a frequent stop for ICE agents in the past two years, with agents making stops at 70 addresses in Champaign, Urbana and Rantoul during that time, according to records obtained by The News-Gazette under the Freedom of Information Act.

Champaign County METCAD records show the dates, times and addresses of where ICE agents have operated since the practice of notifying local authorities in advance began in January 2013. The agency’s cooperation started after Rantoul police received a missing person report, only to learn later that the person had been taken by ICE. Officials said that asking ICE to call ahead of their visits would help prevent something like that from happening again.

METCAD records since mid-2016 show that agents have targeted majority-Hispanic neighborhoods and workplaces staffed by immigrants, as well as making frequent visits to the county courthouse and satellite jail. All are places ICE is authorized to work.

— In the second half of 2016, ICE agents made 15 stops in Rantoul, 13 in Urbana and five in Champaign.

— Last year was busier. Of the 54 addresses visited in 2017, 39 occurred in four months (February, April, June, August). Stops at the satellite jail and county courthouse also increased, from three in the latter part of 2016 to 14 in 2017.

— Through the first six months of 2018, METCAD logged 10 calls from ICE, most recently before two May visits to the satellite jail and an April 27 stop at Rantoul Foods.

The full article has more details and local feedback, including advice on how to prepare for a breadwinner being taken from your household. For those more familiar with the issue and the difference between ICE "detainers" as opposed to arrest warrants, they also had an additional bit on the Champaign County Sheriff's current policy:

For example, Champaign County Sheriff Dan Walsh has said he won’t honor “detainers,” the term for written requests that a local jail or other law enforcement agency keep an individual for an additional 48 hours after their release date to allow ICE agents extra time to decide whether to take that person into federal custody.

Walsh bases that stance on a decision by the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals directing him not to. However, he’s quick to add, ICE is “free to pick someone up when they leave jail,” based on “out” dates the sheriff’s department itself gives ICE when asked for them.

“We go by what the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals says,” Walsh said. “It’s a requirement that they have to have a judge-signed court order, not a detainer signed by an immigration officer. But if they have an arrest warrant, we’ll honor it like any other arrest warrant.”