Olmsted County officials explain consular notification, ICE detainers and custody procedures to commissioners

Olmsted County officials told the Board of Commissioners on Wednesday that the county follows international consular-notification obligations during booking, that fingerprinting and national databases can lead to federal notification, and that the county does not honor ICE detainers or contract to hold federal immigration detainees.

A county official explained the legal foundation for the policy, citing the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (1963). The official told commissioners that when a person booked into the adult detention center reports a place of birth outside the United States, the county has an obligation to make consular notification available and to facilitate contact if requested.

The sheriff explained how the booking and fingerprint process works and how federal agencies can learn of a person in custody. “The fingerprints now are the most instantaneous portion of all of this,” the sheriff said. Fingerprints are submitted electronically to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the FBI; those records can be shared with federal partners. The sheriff added that federal agents may contact the jail after the fingerprint check and request to speak with a detainee; the detainee may decline.

Officials told commissioners the county no longer honors ICE detainers — administrative requests from federal immigration authorities asking a jail to hold someone for pick-up by ICE — because courts and legal rulings have restricted detainers that are not court orders. “We haven't honored those ICE detainers… we don't and we won't,” the sheriff said.

Board members asked whether county staff call ICE or other agencies at release; deputies described a routine release process tied to court appearances and arraignments, and said notification requests that appear in a detainee’s file are acted on when staff process releases. The sheriff and other presenters emphasized that the detention center will not hold people beyond court-ordered custody for the convenience of federal agencies, and that Olmsted County does not have a contract to hold people at the request of ICE.

Commissioners also asked whether local law enforcement would assist with federal deportation actions. County officials said local agencies would not proactively serve as a detention arm for federal deportation operations; they described responding only to public-safety incidents that required local assistance. “That's not our job,” one official said when asked about mass deportation operations.

The Q&A covered procedural details: booking questions include place of birth; fingerprint results are forwarded to state and federal systems; courts typically must sign orders to extend custody; and releases can take up to a few hours depending on court processing and facility workload. Officials urged commissioners to take rides or tours of the adult detention center to see the booking and release process first-hand.

Ending: County officials requested that commissioners use the factual summary to respond to constituent questions and to direct any follow-up requests for detainment policy to the sheriff’s office or the county attorney’s office for details.