Iowa Attorney General says Winneshiek County Sheriff violated state law saying office would not cooperate with detainer requests
DES MOINES — Iowa’s Attorney General says Winneshiek County Sheriff Dan Marx violated state law by stating in a social media post that his office would not be cooperating with detainer requests from federal immigration officials.
On February 4th, Marx said his office would assist with immigration-related warrants issued by a court, but not with detainers, which he said are not vetted by a judge. Governor Reynolds asked the Attorney General’s office to investigate.
Late Wednesday afternoon, Attorney General Brenna Bird announced she had determined the sheriff’s statement violated Iowa law by discouraging enforcement of state and federal immigration laws. Bird provided the sheriff with a statement of retraction and gave him until 5:00 PM Wednesday to post it online. She warned failing to do so means his county would lose all state funding.
As of this morning, the statement has not been posted.
About an hour before Bird’s announcement, Republicans in the Iowa House passed a bill making it a felony for any law enforcement officer, including an elected sheriff, to fail to enforce immigration laws.
