State attorney general sues Indiana county sheriff over 'unlawful' immigration policy

Correction: This story was updated to correct a detail about the county's prior Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy approved by then-Monroe County Sheriff Brad Swain.

Monroe County Sheriff Ruben Marté has been sued by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, who claims the sheriff's policy regarding undocumented immigrants violates state law.

“After filing a lawsuit against East Chicago earlier this week, I am now taking similar action in Monroe County over an ‘Immigration and Citizenship Status’ policy, which we find also violates state law," Rokita said in a news release.

Marté did not immediately respond to a voicemail message Friday, but the sheriff's department emailed a statement to say that it has no plans to change its policy.

Rokita filed the suit Thursday in Monroe Circuit Court. The sheriff's office had not submitted a response as of Friday morning.

According to the lawsuit, Rokita said the sheriff implemented a policy that prohibits or limits Monroe County Sheriff’s Office personnel from voluntary cooperation with federal officials in enforcement of federal immigration laws.

Among other things, Rokita said, the local policy prohibits MCSO personnel from “request(ing) or attempt(ing) to ascertain (i.e. run) immigration or citizenship status of an individual that they encounter related to their official duties … unless required to do so.”

Rokita’s suit cites a new state law that prohibits a governmental agency from enacting or implementing a local law or policy that “‘prohibits or in any way restricts another governmental body’ … from taking certain actions with regard to information of the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of an individual.”

Rokita said his office sent Marté a letter on May 14 to notify the sheriff of his unlawful policy, and subsequent communication indicated Marté planned to revise the policy. However, after reviewing a draft of the revised policy, Rokita said he notified Marté the revision also would violate state law.

The sheriff implemented the “unlawful version” of the local policy anyway, according to the suit.

Rokita has asked a court to compel Marté to stop violating state law, the suit reads.

In an emailed statement, the sheriff's office quoted two lines from its policy:

• “MCSO employees shall not detain individual(s) solely based on a non-criminal/administrative ICE detainer.”
• “MCSO employees shall not hold an individual(s) beyond their scheduled release date based on a non-criminal/administrative ICE detainer.”

"There is no plan to change that policy," the statement read.

Immigration battle:Rokita threatens legal action against Monroe County sheriff over ICE detention policy

The county’s prior Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policy, part of the Monroe County jail directives since 2014, was reviewed and approved by then-sheriff Brad Swain in 2018. It allows foreign nationals, but with local ties, to be released from jail when charged with low-level crimes instead of being held for federal immigration detention. Federal law allows 48-hour ICE holds.

Back in 2020, Swain said there was no written rule, but instead a mutual understanding between local and federal officials about which inmates would be detained for ICE officials. Book-in fingerprints go into a nationwide database that allows ICE to know who has been arrested.

Swain said then that he considered the arrested person’s local connections, criminal history and risk to the public when deciding whether to report the arrest to federal authorities.

Rokita filed suit July 8 against East Chicago for its "Welcoming City" ordinance. A spokesperson told the IndyStar Rokita worked with West Lafayette to change its policy and in a statement Rokita said his office "will continue evaluating other local units of government" for potential violations.

Boris Ladwig can be reached at bladwig@heraldt.com.