In rare move, this northern Minnesota county is working with the feds to make arrests amid ICE surge

The federal government is reducing the number of immigration agents in Minnesota — but how quickly that happens may largely depend on the cooperation of county sheriffs and jails.

One county already cooperating is Crow Wing, where the jail not only houses Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees but also recently helped detain four employees at a Mexican restaurant in downtown Brainerd.

It was a type of operation that Sheriff Eric Klang said last fall that he didn’t anticipate when he signed an agreement with ICE. He said federal officials didn’t want to put him in a position of causing conflict in his community.

But Klang said he stands by his decision to work closely with government agents.

“We are definitely collaborating, cooperating with our federal partners,” he said this week.

That level of collaboration between local law enforcement and federal agents during the immigration surge in the state has been rare, according to the ACLU of Minnesota.

“I’m not going to say that it hasn’t happened. We just haven’t seen that happen,” said Ian Bratlie, an attorney with the ACLU of Minnesota.

But two deputies went to El Potro Mexican Restaurant on Jan. 26. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement that ICE agents executed arrest warrants for two men wanted on federal immigration charges and two others were detained for “unlawful presence in the United States.”

El Porto’s owner told the Star Tribune that his restaurant has remained closed and the employees had worked there for less than a year. He declined to comment further.

Klang said the detentions were part of a larger criminal investigation.

“It wasn’t like an ICE raid or anything like that,” he said, adding that ICE arrived at the scene to transport the men. “This is a big case, bigger case ... and I’m not doing anything to jeopardize their case.”

Bratlie said he hasn’t seen local law enforcement assist federal immigration agents to the degree Klang’s deputies did.

Bratlie said that while there were federal warrants for two men, he thinks detaining the others was “suspicious” without a warrant or flight risk.

White House border czar Tom Homan recently met with the heads of the Minnesota Sheriffs’ Association and Minnesota County Attorneys Association to discuss legal framework that would allow county jails to hold immigration enforcement targets for up to 48 hours after their scheduled release from state custody.

This cooperation between county jails and federal officials led Homan to announce on Wednesday, Feb. 4, that 700 agents would be leaving the state. However, the drawdown still leaves around 2,000 behind.

The Crow Wing County jail has held ICE detainees throughout the ongoing immigration enforcement. Klang said the facility has between 30 and 50 detainees on any given day.

Crow Wing is one of the few counties in Minnesota to enter agreements with ICE last year that give local sheriffs authority to enforce federal immigration laws. Only eight of the state’s 87 counties signed on.

Klang said he signed the agreement “to be more efficient with everybody’s time” so federal agents wouldn’t have to come to the county jail to serve an administrative warrant on someone held on criminal charges.

He said he had no plans for “targeted enforcement” in the fall, when ICE leaders told him that they were not asking local officers to apprehend anyone.

“I’ve had a chance to talk to some of the ICE leadership, and they have assured me they don’t want our help,” Klang said. “They don’t want to put us in a position that would raise or cause conflict with our community.”

The DHS said in a statement that judicial criminal arrest warrants in Brainerd were for two men wanted for improper entry into the country, a misdemeanor, and re-entry after being deported, a felony.

Jose Barajas-Farias and Javier Francisco Montoya-Barboza were the targets of the operation.

Montoya-Barboza was convicted of a misdemeanor underage alcohol consumption in 2010. The DHS said Barajas-Farias, who was convicted in 2002 of driving while intoxicated, was deported in 2007 but unlawfully re-entered in 2010.

The department described Barajas-Farias as “an illegal Mexican national” and Montoya-Barboza as “a criminal illegal alien with a conviction for driving under the influence.” “Illegal aliens have killed and maimed far too many Americans while doing just that,” the DHS said.

Federal officials have said they are targeting the “worst of the worst” — “violent assailants, domestic abusers, and drug traffickers” — in Minnesota’s ICE surge.

Asked if Barajas-Farias and Montoya-Barboza are the worst of the worst, Klang said no.

But he said warrants are filed to get people off the streets while more serious charges are pending.