Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce promised on Monday that the Cumberland County Jail will continue to house some ICE detainees upon request despite a recent vote by the county commissioners last week to end their agreement with immigration officials.
[RELATED: Cumberland Commissioners End Jail Agreement with ICE in 3-1 Vote…]
“Going forward, the Cumberland County Jail will hold ICE inmates who are considered criminals. The decision by the Cumberland County Commissioners will only affect the fact that the county will not be reimbursed by ICE for holding their inmates. The US Marshals contract with the county will remain the same,” said Joyce in a statement.
Last Tuesday, the Cumberland County Commissioners voted 3-1 to end their agreement with ICE.
At the time, the one opponent of the decision, Commissioner Stephen Gordon, pointed out that the decision would only harm taxpayers and would do essentially nothing to curtail ICE operations.
He pointed out that terminating the agreement would simply prevent the county from billing ICE to house immigration detainees in their jail and would not actually stop the agency from placing prisoners there.
Sheriff Joyce confirmed Gordon’s concerns and promised that if ICE requests to house detainees there in the future, he will allow it. He will, however, only accept detainees accused of other crimes in addition to illegally entering the country.
“The vote is strictly whether or not ICE will be billed for housing ICE inmates at the Cumberland County jail moving forward. Currently, ICE has chosen not to hold their inmates at the Cumberland County Jail, but should they decide in the future, my position will be that they can house their inmates at the Cumberland County Jail, but only those who are criminal aliens, AKA the ‘worst of the worst,'” said Joyce.
He pointed out that state law continues to allow county jails to house some ICE detainees unless they are being held on civil or administrative violations.
“This move is not much different than Maine state law; law enforcement doesn’t routinely arrest and lock up individuals who have committed civil violations, they typically arrest individuals who have committed misdemeanors and felonies. If everyone who did something illegal was arrested and detained in our jails, all of our jails would be overcrowded,” said Joyce.
His suggestion that housing ICE detainees accused only of civil offenses could cause overcrowding seems to ignore the fact that those illegal immigrants would likely be deported from the country rather than housed in jails indefinitely.
ICE removed its detainees from the Cumberland County Jail in January after Joyce criticized the agency’s operations during their brief enforcement surge in Maine.
If ICE decides to once again hold detainees in the jail, Cumberland taxpayers will be paying the bill thanks to their commissioners’ performative vote.
