Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt blasts ‘misinformation’ about her cooperation with ICE

The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office has not struck any new agreement with federal immigration officials, a visibly frustrated Sheriff Dawanna Witt emphasized a day after border czar Tom Homan suggested that increased cooperation with Minnesota’s elected officials and jails were part of the reason for the drawdown of Operation Metro Surge.

“Let me be clear: The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office does not conduct any civil immigration enforcement,” Witt repeatedly said during a news conference on Feb. 13. “We will not conduct civil immigration enforcement. Our policies related to immigration remain unchanged. Our office is operating in the exact same way as it did when I took office here at the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office.”

She blasted “some influential leaders” and “elected officials” for conveying that she had negotiated some kind of agreement in order to hasten the federal agents’ departure.

“It’s hard work being an elected official, and if you’re not in it to do the hard work to get to the truth and to find the truth and then be responsible and put the truth out there, perhaps you need to think about another line of work,” Witt said.

The office did not immediately clarify which elected leaders Witt thought had spread incorrect information.

The Hennepin County jail regularly receives “detainers,” or administrative requests from ICE, to hold people in their custody for up to 48 hours beyond their regularly scheduled release so that immigration agents can pick them up for deportation proceedings. However, the sheriff’s policy is to not comply with such requests because it has been found unconstitutional to do so, Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Megan Larson said.

Those individuals in jail are generally pre-trial detainees who have not yet been convicted.

The Sheriff’s Office will honor only judicial orders, because that is the law, she said.

At his news conference on Feb. 12 announcing the impending end of Operation Metro Surge, Homan said: “I’m very pleased to report that this surge operation and our work here with state and local officials to improve coordination, and achieve mutual goals, as well as our efforts to address issues of concern here on the ground, have yielded the successful results we came here for in the Twin Cities.”

The implication of increased coordination between federal immigration enforcement and local officials raised questions from the public, including activists Nekima Levy Armstrong of the Racial Justice Network and Michelle Gross of Communities United Against Police Brutality.

At a news conference on Feb. 12, they urged the public to remain vigilant in the final days of Operation Metro Surge and demanded that local law enforcement agencies disclose what new agreements, if any, they made to effectuate the drawdown. Levy Armstrong called out Witt in particular.

“We elected you to do a job, and that was to show strong leadership and uphold the integrity of Hennepin County,” Levy Armstrong said at the time, while standing in front of the Sheriff’s Office. “But instead, you and your deputies have cooperated with ICE time and time again.”

Witt said she could only speak for the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, and not what other sheriffs may be doing, but that she did not ultimately capitulate to the federal government despite meeting four times with Homan to discuss the federal government’s request that local jails honor detainers. Witt said these meetings were opportunities for her to educate him about how things are done in Minnesota.

Nevertheless, she said Hennepin County seems to be receiving the brunt of the public’s scrutiny and distrust, and that she has been “hit” harder than any other sheriff.

“I did not make any deals, and if I did make a deal, I wouldn’t make a deal to hide it from the public,” Witt said.

The sheriff also defended the security roles her deputies served at the Hennepin County courthouse and Whipple.