In a hearing on Wednesday, an attorney for a South Bend, Indiana sheriff argued the state attorney general can’t prosecute him for allegedly ignoring state law banning sanctuary cities.
The Saint Joseph County Police Department “has repeatedly released criminal aliens into the community” for at least a year, Assistant Chief Deputy Attorney General Blake Lanning told The Federalist. “That creates serious public safety risks.”
Rather than showing the police department is complying with state law by informing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of illegally present foreign criminals in their custody, Sheriff Bill Redman’s attorney argued Attorney General Todd Rokita has no legal authority to prosecute his agency for failing to comply. Redman lawyer Michael Smyth also argued that failing to cooperate with federal law enforcement does no injury to the state, a requirement for lawsuit standing, according to local news reports.
Recent polls rank illegal immigration as Hoosier voters’ no. 1 political concern, yet Indiana lawmakers declined to pass a robust immigration enforcement bill backed by the AG’s office this spring. Refusing to honor detainers is a typical component of sanctuary city policies. Local governments’ refusal to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement is a major contributor to the United States’s illegal immigration morass.
Federal immigration authorities argue it increases risks to citizens by forcing federal authorities to chase and arrest foreign criminals in neighborhoods rather than in secure locations like jails. Police departments that don’t honor federal detainer requests release criminals back into communities, where they often re-offend.
Indiana’s law, Rokita said, “does not require the police to enforce federal law, just to communicate and cooperate with federal law enforcement. This means they also cannot hinder federal law enforcement or help detainees,” Amy Drake reported for The Federalist in January.
“If you have nine [federal criminal] detainers in six months and your record is oh for nine, that suggests pretty strongly, and gives rise to the inference which is what we were arguing today, that you have policy in place that categorically prohibits officers from cooperating with ICE,” Lanning argued in court Wednesday, according to local outlet WNDU.
ICE listed Redman’s county, St. Joseph County, “as a non-cooperative institution” in June 2024, Drake reported. This means St. Joseph police don’t notify ICE before they release an illegally present foreign citizens, and won’t comply with ICE requests that the police hold such an alien in custody for up to 48 hours so ICE can pick the criminal up for immigration proceedings.
Despite this, Redman, a Democrat, continued to argue Wednesday that Rokita’s lawsuit is “factually deficient because our sheriff, of course, always followed all state and federal laws,” according to 6 News Now. The attorney general says in court documents that the only evidence Redman offers he’s following state law are verbal claims, which are contradicted by evidence.
Rokita argues Redman is violating state law by “enforcing a different policy” than state law, one that restricts ICE agents from doing their job. During Wednesday’s hearing, Redman argued Rokita is trying to “deputize local law enforcement agencies to enforce federal immigration law,” calling it “politically attractive.”
After Redman failed multiple times to follow ICE detainer’s requests, according to ICE, Rokita sent Redman letters in October and December warning the sheriff that he would be sued if he didn’t comply with the law. The general assembly passed a law in 2024 giving Rokita the ability to file lawsuits “against any Indiana colleges, universities, or units of local government not enforcing current Indiana laws that ban sanctuary cities,” he said in a press conference.
Rokita sued Redman in January for “refusing to notify ICE properly” about illegal immigrants in jail and refusing to honor the ICE’s requests to continue to hold them in prison. Redman continued to argue during Wednesday’s hearing that Rokita “lacks standing to bring the suit,” citing Indiana law, according to his brief.
Another Chicago-area Indiana police department recently agreed to cooperate with federal authorities as a result of Rokita’s demands.
“It’s sad, but law enforcement has become part of the problem,” Rokita said in January, according to the South Bend Tribune. Judge John Broden, a former chairman of the local Democrat Party, is due to issue a ruling within 60 days.
Abigail Nichols is a correspondent for The Federalist. She was previously the opinion editor for the University of South Florida’s student newspaper, The Oracle. She is now working as the business manager at the University of North Florida’s student-run media outlet, Spinnaker Media, while obtaining a Master’s Degree in Social work.
