County Commissioners: Clarify Policy for Public Safety and Taxpayer Liability

The following are my public comments delivered to the Rice County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, February 10, 2026.

I am concerned about the current state of public safety in Faribault, and I know I am not alone in this concern. I have heard many verifiable stories from my neighbors in Faribault. Legal residents, immigrants following the legal process, naturalized citizens, and even natural-born citizens have been swept up by ICE. This includes people I know personally. This includes family. WCCO reports that less than 14% of the 400,000 people arrested by ICE in 2025 had violent criminal records. 

If Rice County reforms their policy to only honor judicial warrants, residents will be more trusting of local law enforcement. Evidence shows that when ICE operates without administrative assistance from local law enforcement, crimes are reported more readily, witnesses feel safer speaking up, and trust in local law enforcement increases, making the entire community safer.

Currently, Rice County chooses to notify ICE when they have arrested someone on ICE’s detainer list. These detainers do not indicate criminal guilt, do not require a conviction, and may be issued for people arrested for minor offenses or never found guilty at all. And, as you know, those booked in the County Jail are not inherently criminals. We are all innocent until proven guilty and deserve our day in court. Honoring ICE administrative detainers deprives people of their day in court. ICE has wrongfully issued detainers against countless U.S. citizens because administrative detainers are not rigorously vetted and increasingly do not indicate a judicial warrant.

Contemporary ICE detention centers mirror the worst conditions of America’s prisons, with even less oversight and fewer channels for redress. These conditions would not be acceptable in the county jail and I know would not be acceptable to County staff. This is why even innocent people and United States citizens fear ICE. There is no guarantee that due process will protect someone from being lost in a for-profit detention system with notoriously poor recordkeeping. With ICE as it stands today, due process does not exist.

Because the County assists in these apprehensions by honoring administrative detainers, the County also carries liability for ICE’s errors. This exposes the County to costly lawsuits and settlements which will divert staff resources to cleaning up ICE’s mess. These are resources not spent prosecuting criminals or protecting my family. Rice County taxpayers will ultimately be on the hook to pay for ICE’s reckless practices.

I know you all believe in equal justice under the law. Current ICE practices deny equal justice.

I ask you to clarify the County’s policy on ICE to only honor judicial warrants, not just out of moral necessity but for practical public safety concerns and your responsibility to the taxpayers.