Conservative legal group challenges Cook County immigration policy

WBEZ ^ | April 22, 2013 | Chip Mitchell

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Invoking the Boston Marathon bombings, a national conservative group has filed a lawsuit aimed at a Cook County ordinance that requires jail personnel to disregard federal immigration detainers.

The Washington-based Judicial Watch says the county has no legal right to ignore the detainers, which are U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement requests that local jails hold specified individuals up to two business days beyond what their criminal cases require.

President Obama’s administration says the detainers, which help ICE put the inmates into deportation proceedings, are crucial for focusing immigration enforcement on criminals.

Cook County officials say detainers also erode community trust in local police. In 2011, the County Board approved an ordinance that halted detainer compliance by the county’s massive jail. ICE abruptly lost convenient access to hundreds of immigration violators each year. Lawmakers in other parts of the country, meanwhile, approved bills modeled after the policy.

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Cook County officials say detainers also erode community trust in local police. More concern about the illegals than they are Americans. How can this police dept say we must ignore our laws in order to keep our illegals trust in us at it's highest level ?