Pastor tells council new ICE-warrant policy risks unlawful detentions and promises legal aid

Pastor Andy Oliver told the council he reviewed the police department’s newly issued ICE policy with immigration attorneys and warned the policy could lead to unlawful detentions if officers acted on administrative warrants alone.

Oliver, pastor at Allendale United Methodist Church, said he spent a day consulting “leading immigration attorneys” after receiving the department’s new policy and emphasized the legal difference between judicial warrants and immigration (administrative) warrants. “A judicial warrant is issued by a judge based on probable cause and gives law enforcement legal authority to arrest or detain someone,” he said. “An administrative warrant…is issued by a federal agency, not a judge. It does not establish probable cause of a crime. It does not give local law enforcement the power to detain or arrest anyone.”

He told the council, “Due process is not optional. It is not a suggestion, it is the law,” and said that if someone were unlawfully detained under the policy he would “personally ensure that they have top legal counsel and that the city pays for violating their rights.” Oliver referenced a large recent data upload to national databases, describing “the 700,000 names ICE just dumped into that system,” and cited the case of Mahmoud Khalil as an example of someone he said was placed on a deportation list for exercising free speech.

Oliver concluded with an explicitly critical assessment of the policy’s intent and effect: “This policy is unconstitutional white supremacist fascist trash, and anyone who lets this stand is complicit.” His remarks were delivered during the meeting’s open forum; the transcript excerpt does not include a response from police or city staff within the provided text.