According to the Center for Immigration Studies, Hernando is one of the 7 out of 67 counties in Florida that are sanctuary counties. The Center for Immigration Studies defines a sanctuary county as one that refuses requests from the federal government to detain individuals for possible deportation from the country. There are other jurisdictions that go even further and will not even allow the Federal government into their jails or support them in any way.
Sheriff Al Nienhuis disagrees with Hernando County being listed as a sanctuary county. He says that the county does not honor detainer requests on the advice of the Florida Sheriff Association, which believes that the detainer requests do not rise to the level of probable cause. The Florida Sheriff Association suggests that by following the detainer requests you could violate a citizen’s civil rights and open the county up to have to pay substantial monetary damages for these violations.
Last Thursday, the Sheriff posted on Facebook a message reiterating his belief that it is unfair to describe Hernando County as a sanctuary county. In his message he lays out his case for declining to honor the detainer requests which is a form I-247 in excerpts of his message quoted below.
“The Form I-247 detainer request, which is likely involved in the misapplied designation of Sanctuary County, is not supported by sworn probable cause in its underlying request to detain an individual. This form is routinely used by immigration authorities as a means to request detention of a person.
“Several courts around the county have opined the same, that this request lacks the mandate of law. In doing so, these courts have set precedent. In the cases where local law enforcement has been sued after honoring an I-247 request, where a lawful United States citizen was held, no federal agency has provided aid to local jurisdictions in defending lawsuits they have been confronted with as a result of honoring of the federal government’s request for detention. Thus, all the risk and liability was placed on agencies funded by local taxpayers to enforce a federal obligation.
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“ Pursuant to Galarza v. Szalczyk, 745 F.3d 634 (3d Cir.2014); Morales v. Chadbourne, C.A. No. 12–301–M, 2014 WL 554478 (D.R.I. Feb. 12, 2014); Miranda–Olivares v. Clackamas County., No. 3:12–CV–02317–ST, 2014 WL 1414305 (D.Or. Apr. 11, 2014) probable cause is required to detain or hold a suspected illegal alien in custody.
“We stand ready to support the activities of I.C.E. or D.H.S. But, that will take information sharing, better communication at the federal level, and consistent federal commitment to retrieve prisoners lawfully held. Given the President’s announcement, we suspect that long overdue support is coming.”
The Center for Immigration Studies has been in existence since 1985, they are essentially an anti-illegal immigration think tank and tout multiple instances of testimony before Congress. You can find their interactive map of Sanctuary Jusidictions at http://cis.org/Sanctuary-Cities-Map.