Ramsey County jail in St. Paul no longer taking detainees

Federal immigration authorities will have to look to other county jails throughout the Midwest to house prisoners suspected of violating immigration rules. Ramsey County Sheriff Jack Serier alerted ICE in late 2017 that the county’s correctional facility in St. Paul would no longer hold their detainees as of Jan. 1.

“We’re losing money every time we hold somebody,” said Ramsey County Chief Deputy Steve Frazer, who noted that ICE reimbursed the county $80 per day for what amounts to a $160 daily expense.

He said previous Sheriff Matt Bostrom greatly reduced the number of ICE inmates, which recently dwindled to “just one or two people per day,” and recent jail crowding was the final straw.

“It was an operational decision made by the sheriff,” Frazer said. “The jail is experiencing higher than normal volumes of inmates. That number used to experience an up and down fluctuation on a curve. And we’re not really seeing it go down.”

The agreement with ICE delivered relatively little money to the county. Year-end numbers were not officially available, but Frazer said ICE reimbursed the county $32,000 for the first half of 2017.

Overall, the county held 120 individuals last year for ICE through a broader agreement with the U.S. Marshals that included language allowing other federal agencies to use the county corrections facilities. That language has been dropped from the contract with the U.S. Marshals.

Shawn Neudauer, a spokesman for ICE in Minnesota, said ICE will still house detainees at the Sherburne or Carver county jails. In outstate Minnesota, they also house detainees at the Freeborn and Nobles adult detention centers. Ramsey County, however, offered closer proximity to federal immigration courts at Fort Snelling for detainees awaiting an immigration determination in court.

Ramsey County “basically asked us to move our people out because they didn’t have any room left, but we still have a relationship with them,” Neudauer said. “One of the things that was nice about having one in the metro is if we have an overnight or weekend call. But Sherburne is not hard to get to.”

Members of the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners said the sheriff’s decision was not political, but stemmed from operational concerns.

“We have not had a policy discussion about it,” said Jim McDonough, chairman of the Ramsey County Board. “Speaking for myself, I’m supportive of what he’s doing here.”

Nevertheless, in downtown St. Paul, immigration attorney Kara Lynum celebrated the news.

“I’m pretty excited about this,” she said.

Ramsey County’s decision to retrench comes as the administration of  President Donald Trump ramps up detainment of those in the country illegally.

In October, ICE posted to a federal contracting website that it was looking for new detention facilities and vendors near its offices in St. Paul, Chicago, Detroit and Salt Lake City.

ICE, which budgets for 38,000 detainees per year,  increased its budget request to Congress to fund 48,000 adults, according to National Public Radio.

Frazer said immigration officials recently visited Ramsey County Corrections in hopes of persuading the county to continue to accept the detainees, without success.

“They pled their case and asked if they could continue, and we told them the sheriff’s answer was final,” he said. “We thanked them for everything they’ve done in the past. It was very cordial.”

Frazer noted that while the county will not house federal detainees, Ramsey County will continue to hold inmates suspected of violent crimes or charged with other violations of state law, regardless of immigration status.

“If they’re in on a violent crime, typically that’s a state charge,” he said. “If a person who is illegally in the country now commits a crime in Ramsey County, they could still be put in our jail. It’s just we’re not taking the holds based specifically on ICE immigration issues.”