The Marion County jail reached capacity and will no longer hold people for ICE beyond 48 hours

The Marion County jail will no longer hold people detained for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement beyond 48 hours after it reached capacity Sunday, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said.

The jail has space to hold around 2,900 people but has a financial limit set by the Indianapolis City-County Council that caps its capacity at 2,400 people, said Sheriff Kerry Forestal, and it costs the jail $82 per day to hold a person.

He said around 175 people convicted of state crimes and held at the Adult Detention Center in Indianapolis have not yet been transferred to Indiana Department of Correction facilities. This has caused the jail to exceed its financial limit and resulted in a budgetary shortfall of about $2.7 million per year, because IDOC only reimburses the office with $42 per person per day, Forestal said.

He called for IDOC to pay what it owes and said “immediate local action” is needed. His current solution is to limit the amount of time the sheriff’s office will hold people before ICE can transport them.

According to an agreement with the federal government from 2007 obtained by WFYI, the sheriff’s office reserves space to hold people for the U.S. Marshals Service, the Federal Bureau of Prisons and ICE. The jail uses up to 149 beds for federal arrests, Forestal said. The office also transmits data to ICE twice a day.

Either party can withdraw from the agreement with appropriate notice, but that would mean leaving partnerships with other federal agencies unrelated to immigration.

“When they want to charge somebody with a federal charge … those prisoners need to be held, and we’ve always held those. ICE only takes a bigger percentage of those,” Forestal said in an interview. “I want the FBI, ATF, DEA to be able to put these people in jail."

Immigration advocates have protested the office’s participation in federal immigration enforcement.

“Too little, too late! Forestal should have had the backbone to seek legal counsel and mount a defense against Rokita and Braun but did not. Marion County residents’ priority is not to fund President Donald Trump’s deportation program,” the Rev. Fatima Yakubu-Madus, a deacon at Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis who has participated in other demonstrations, said in a statement to WFYI. “Our tax money is for Marion County residents and not for helping ICE to detain our neighbors and tear families apart.”

Rick Snyder, president of the Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police, said in a statement on social media that the existing system provides “simple fixes.” He called for IDOC to accelerate transfer of people convicted of state crimes and for ICE to follow the 48-hour timeline.

Snyder also called on the sheriff’s office “to abide by the law regarding convicted felons and legally binding federal holds.”

Chief Chris Bailey has said the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department will not participate in federal immigration enforcement operations.

At a City-County Council meeting in September, Forestal appeared and defended his office’s role in immigration operations. He said he was following the law — including an executive order from Gov. Mike Braun and an opinion from Attorney General Todd Rokita.

Rokita has sued the South Bend Police Department and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office over alleged violations of a law that prohibits government agencies and certain employees from preventing others from communicating with ICE.
 

Forestal told WFYI he does not want a lawsuit against Marion County — or backlash from the federal government for defying the Trump administration’s immigration agenda.

"I think it’d be reckless for me to say we’re not going to cooperate,” he said. “And next thing, we have to have millions of dollars involved in litigation or settlement, or we have federal troops, National Guard, coming to Indianapolis, because they would look at a blue city in the middle of a red state and make this a political issue. The simpler thing is just to follow the law.”

Braun’s executive order mandates state law enforcement agencies comply with ICE and “requests” that local law enforcement cooperate with the federal agency.

Forestal met with ICE. He said they were expecting a change.

“This is the first time I’ve gave any kind of closer number, hoping that they would be able to finish this in two weeks. Their goal would be to do that. But I’m not going to lock the doors if they’re not here — everybody’s out of here — in two weeks,” he said.

WFYI is reporting on the local impacts of immigration policy. If you have a tip or want to talk, contact reporter Zak Cassel at zcassel@wfyi.org.