ALBERT LEA, Minn. – The Freeborn County jail is being used by federal agents to hold immigrants rounded up this week in southern Minnesota. Sheriff Ryan Shea confirmed he is holding the immigrants but wouldn’t disclose details. His jail roster lists 22 inmates, all held on routine local charges unrelated to ICE operations. The jail has 138 beds. About ICE detainees, Shea referred news reporters to a national ICE registry of detainees. However, it’s impossible to find ICE detainees on the registry without their names. It’s also impossible to know where the estimated 2,500 detainees arrested in recent raids are being held. In short, it cannot be determined how many ICE detainees are in Shea’s custody in Albert Lea — and he’s not talking, The jail has 138 beds. The activist immigrant support group, Communities Organizing Latin Power and Action, is aware of at least three ICE detainees in the Albert Lea jail — two arrested Wednesday in Rochester, 65 miles away, and one arrested Thursday in Austin, 40 miles away.
Other jails where ICE unloads
Sheriff Shea is one of three county sheriffs in Minnesota who has said yes when ICE went county to county to assess jail capacities and propose “partnering contracts.” Besides Albert Lea, other contracts are in Elk River with 732 beds and Willmar with 190 beds. There are 87 counties in the state. Among counties not under ICE detention contracts for whatever reason are Olmsted with 202 beds and Winona with 53 beds.
Legality of ICE jail contracts
Shea. Sheriff through 2026. Age 48. First elected 2022, defeating Police Lieutenaat Jeff Strom by fewer than 500 votes. Replaced Kurt Freitag, who retired.
Freeborn County jail. Opened in 2004 as a regional jail for males. With 22 local inmates this weekend, there could be room for 116 ICE detainees.
Jail. In Freeborn County Government Center.
The Minnesota jail contracts appear illegal. On February 6 as the extent of the ICE sweeps was becoming clear, the state’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, issued a formal legal opinion. Ellison said that Minnesota law prohibits state and local law enforcement agencies from holding someone based on an immigration detainer. ICE has responded obliquely to the Ellison ruling that it has never forced any Minnesota county to take its detainees but merely requested that they do so.
History of ICE-local relations
Somewhat related is long-standing ICE policy that that asks local law enforcement agencies to notify ICE before releasing any “removable aliens.” This suggests that ICE expects local policing agencies to turn over anyone suspected of lacking legal documents for being in the country. In effect, ICE wants local sheriffs and police chiefs to do ICE’s job, which has become politically problematic with exuberant Trump policy aimed at deporting brown-skin immigrants.
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