the big highlights were is uh we need we need some changes with the way that we are able to hold um detainees for ice you know that's that's been our been our biggest struggle there's been a false narrative that's been put out by the regional director of ice um and we we need help doing this the sh the big thing about it is the sheriff's want to do this we want to be part of the solution but the federal government through their rules and regulations and all of their red tape have made it pretty much
impossible to do without putting the citizens of our communities at at large liability of lawsuits from the federal government how difficult is it to hold somebody in your facility given their stringent sort of requirements yeah so the easiest way to put it is my facility and pretty much any jail facility in this state was built to house criminal detainees and so the ice detainees are actually categorized as civil holds so the Civil hold they're coming with a whole set of different rules and now you're trying to house them in a facility that was not built
to facilitated it so right off the bat you were just up against a wall that for most well for pretty much any facility in the state of Utah right now the second you bring those holds into your facility you're already breaking the the the standards and the rules that they've set forth Just because because of the design of the facility what do you mean by that what is an example of some of the things that make that very diff the largest would be there has to be a complete separation even down to um where you
bring them in for booking and other things I mean they they're not supposed to have any crossover whatsoever so you got to have a separate intake area they've got to be in an area of your facility that's completely isolated from the of the inmates the new Administration in of course this week how does that impact what's going on in Utah County per se you know it'll be interesting to see I I think for the most part we're not quite sure yet we're hoping that some of these rules that have kind of got in the way
of of us holding these ice holds that that they'll they'll be fixed um but these in all fairness these rules these standards they've been in place before the Biden Administration I mean they were in place last time when President Trump was was in office and we were struggling with them then this this problem goes back quite a while I've been a sheriff now for six years and one of the very first meetings that I had when I uh was becoming the sheriff was uh with Senator hatch and Senator hatch uh you know bringing out ice
officials from DC so we could try to work through these issues so you know we've we've chipped at them now well as long as I've been sheriff and it was happening longer than that and it's just it's just been a nightmare it's been something that we've not been able to overcome what are some of those big issues like what would have to change here in Utah to allow everyone I guess to work together for the per the administration's directives yeah so we've made it we've made it this simple um many jails in the state of
Utah hold inmates for the Marshall's office for the federal Marshall's office off so we've told them time and time again give us the same rules and standards that we that we live up to with the Marshall holds on the ice side and it's a done deal we're we're ready to go you know we our facilities go through multiple Audits and checks and we live up to standards they're already in place um we're we're ready to go on that end and it just seems something that we hit a brick wall with the federal government every single
time in the last few days have you gotten questions about this from members of your community at all um not really I mean most most questions honestly they're they're people making comments on different forums that are very uninformed they're not you know they see one thing and and believe they have the full picture of what's going on well on that subject I know you don't work for ice and you're not a federal employee but given you are a sheriff and a very populated area in Utah what should Utah know about this like what is the
what is the important pieces of information because a lot of us aren't getting that what does this look like for Utah again that it's hard to answer right now because we're still in the you know what is President Trump going to do what's you know Tom hullman going to do so we're we're waiting to see how this rolls out um I can tell you what it looks like is I can tell you from our end is that the sheriffs are ready um we we're ready for them to make the changes that need to happen and
we want to be part of the solution we have all along you know even during this last bumpy stage through the Biden Administration um we have come up with solution after solution after solution to our local ice leadership and it we it's just been laughed off it's been given you know we we asked them how many beds do you need in the state of Utah uh the number they kept throwing out is 400 so we came up with Solutions we came up with um you know a facility up in Ogden that could be used we
came up with a a vacant facility in daget county that can be used and we were just met with ridiculous reasons why our Solutions were no good in the last four years because you said bumpy but the last four years how often were your officers deputies encountering folks that are in in the state illegally and and had to go through that process in addition to whatever crimes you had them on what are you seeing in Utah County so this is what we're seeing this is what local law enforcement is allowed to do um there there
is a there is a a line drawn in the sand we do not have any authority to arrest anybody for just being here illegally um once when somebody's here illegally and they break the law we you know they're they're treated just like anybody else we arrest them they go through a criminal justice process the second that we arrest them we notify ice that we have this person we have them on these charges and uh and we'll notify him again when these charges are coming up and when it looks like they're going to be released by
the judge or they've went through the whole criminal justice process and we contact I say come and get them they're going to be released we'll even we'll even hold them we've told them we'll hold them up to 72 hours just let us know you're coming we will hold them for you and start the deportation process or do whatever you're going to do um very very rarely do we ever see anybody from Ice come to get these people and we have no choice but to release them out of our facility and then do you see those
same folks again we do yeah it depends sometimes uh depending on um how how large the crime is um we never see him again or we we have some that they were trying to hold and get federal charges and uh local judges will release them out of our facility before we even have time to to get an indictment through the federal system so it's been very frustrating on that end and I I hope we can get a little bit more cooperation and and get things smoothed out do most of those coincide with narcotics and con
Controlled Substances with trafficking um a lot of them do but you know we've had a lot with you know you name it it from domestic violence to you know to um violent crimes to property crimes you name it we get the whole gamut but yes there are there are a lot that have to do with narcotics and and the transportation of Narcotics in your position how would you say how would you describe Isis presence in Utah just in general right now are there many ice agents like is this something where we are we have an
active sort of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Utah or is it they come from somewhere else to be here for your request um they're here uh year you go back years ago and they used to be more part of our teams you know we had them on our task forces we had them in different areas and they'd be here to help us you could call a nice agent and they'd roll out we we just haven't seen that type of cooperation for a while and we we welcome it back we we want that back anything else
we're missing I don't want to be labor the subject but is there anything else that you feel is important for utans to be informed of of this situation I you know honestly for me you know being the the sheriff's Association president for the past two years we went through this this ugly period with you know a campaign and political uh targets were painted on us I I want the people of Utah to know that the sheriffs uh we have always wanted to be part of the solution and we have been up against the wall uh
we have been painted in a very bad light some things about Utah have been said that just aren't true um and and namely that that Target was hung on the sheriffs and said that you know because of and they they even went as far as naming specific Sheriff's offices that we had destabilized the operations of of ice in the region and that is a false narrative it it was recalled we called them on it it's false we even went as far as um polling uh State Association Sheriff's associations Across the Nation on Who as a
sheriff's office is actually holding ice detainees and we actually were the anomaly for ever doing it um so we had actually went way further than than most any other sheriff's office across this nation have ever went and and an unfair Target was hung on us but we're back and we're we're saying just like we always have we want to help help us change these rules these these holding regulations that that bring undo liability upon our facilities upon um our citizens ultimately who pay the bill if if and we get in a lawsuit you know we
have seen and it it's not a fake thing I mean we have seen across the nation facilities that are holding completely shut down I mean there's there's a facility I'm aware of um in the southern states that was audited almost a hundred times in one year there's another one that they flat out just shut down they put it out of business and we can't put our facilities that type of Jeopardy we need the federal government to step up and make it right so we can help be part of the solution it sounds like you need
somewhere other than Las Vegas to maybe have a facility is that right yeah yeah and and again we were kind of gaslighted on that as well because uh we learned um just recently that there's only 40 beds in Las Vegas and that's not just for you well for us 40 beds not just for Utah but for for surrounding states for Utah Idaho you know it so Wyoming 40 beds and we want to help we we've got Solutions and so we're so we're excited for this new presidential Administration and uh for new leadership in ice and
we're ready to to get the show on the road in the state of Utah
