Email, Jason Stanford, communications director, Office of Mayor Steve Adler, City of Austin, Feb. 17, 2017

1:18 p.m.

We did rely exclusively on the Pew Study as reported in the article and I think what the Mayor said is a near direct quote from that article. You seem to concur that the statement is factually correct.  

For us, what the statement means is that detainers without warrants are not accepted in many places around the country and that our Sheriff is not alone (we continue to believe that is true).  Certainly, many and perhaps most detainer requests are accepted around the country, too. But our point was that our Sheriff is not alone.

If you are going to draw conclusions about individual states, you really need a lot more information. I would think that in some states, where the number of warrantless detainers not accepted are low, are states where ICE does not submit warrantless detainers because those local officials would not accept them. For example, at least two district courts (one a federal district court) have found that complying with a warrantless detainer is unconstitutional. That precedent has to mean that in certain geographic areas of the country, ICE is having to obtain warrants for each detainer request. It could be (I don’t know) that the federal district court ruling is being applied in the six state region in that federal circuit.

"Last year, a U.S. District Court in Illinois ruled that the detainers are illegal because they exceed the government’s authority to hold prisoners without a warrant. That followed a 2014 U.S. District Court order holding an Oregon county liable for damages after denying bail to a woman based on a detainer.”

Jason Stanford

Communications Director

Office of Mayor Steve Adler, City of Austin