Lawsuit over Cook County, IL, Sheriff’s Refusal to Honor ICE Immigration Detainers - Man run over and killed by an unlawfully present alien

Judicical Watch - (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it filed a response in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, opposing a motion to dismiss the organization’s April lawsuit challenging Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart’s refusal to honor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) immigration detainers or cooperate with ICE in identifying deportable criminal aliens.

The Judicial Watch lawsuit, Brian McCann v. Thomas J. Dart, was brought on behalf of lifelong Cook County resident Brian McCann, whose brother, Denny McCann, was run over and killed in June 2011, by an unlawfully present alien who had just completed a two-year term of probation for a 2009 DUI conviction.  The alien, Saul Chavez, was charged with felony aggravated driving under the influence, but was released by Dart from a Cook County jail in November 2011 despite an ICE immigration detainer. In the lawsuit McCann asked the Circuit Court to compel Dart to comply with his legal duties to honor ICE detainers and to cooperate with federal immigration officials. It also asks the Circuit Court to declare the Cook County ordinance to be preempted by federal law.

In its motion to dismiss, Sheriff Dart argued that an immigration detainer is simply a “request” from the federal government creating no legally binding obligation on the part of state or local authorities. Citing the Code of Federal Regulations, Judicial Watch responded, “There is nothing voluntary about the words ‘shall maintain custody’ as used in the regulation.” According to the regulation:

Upon a determination by the [U.S. Department of Homeland Security] to issue a detainer for an alien not otherwise detained by a criminal justice agency, such agency shall maintain custody [emphasis added] of the alien for a period not to exceed 48 hours, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays in order to permit assumption of custody by the Department.   More