Washtenaw County’s progressive, DEI-endorsing sheriff has joined the list of elected officials who say they won’t cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s mass deportation efforts.

President Donald Trump’s administration began ICE raids this week in several cities, holding true to a campaign promise to close the southern border and round up criminal illegal aliens.

But Washtenaw County Sheriff Alyshia Dyer maintains her department will not assist ICE officials, despite U.S. Department of Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller’s warning that local officials could face arrest if they try to delay or interfere with ICE’s deportation operations.

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“The law is clear that harboring an illegal alien, smuggling an illegal alien, obstructing law enforcement, obstructing an official proceeding and a conspiracy to violate the rights of Americans, all of these and many more are criminal statutes,” the Homeland Security advisor told FOX News host Jesse Watters earlier this week.

“So, if there [are] incidences that occur where a public official or an elected individual engages in violations of those criminal statutes, then I fully expect the Department of Justice will follow the letter of the law.”

Dyer’s position isn’t a surprise considering she plans to combat violent crime with a new Environmental Crimes Unit that will focus on “air pollution, water contamination, and hazardous waste management,” as The Midwesterner previously reported.

Despite Washtenaw County’s persistent crime, Dyer’s top priorities include DEI and green initiatives, including reducing vehicle emissions and transitioning patrol cars to electric vehicles.

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Dyer said her department will not hold people in the county jail on immigration detainers requested by ICE.

“The crux of it on my end as sheriff is we’re not getting involved,” Dyer said in this MLive report. “Federal immigration matters are federal immigration matters, and we are local public servants.”

In Dyer’s opinion, the detainers also violate people’s right to due process. Dyer maintains a detainer “is not a valid judicial warrant, and it puts us at risk for really serious liability concerns when we’re holding people in our jail without a valid warrant.”

Deputies also do not ask people their immigration status during traffic stops. Dyer said working with ICE erodes the public’s trust and makes it less likely non-citizens will call 911 if they are facing a true emergency.

“If we get into the habit of honoring detainers with ICE, then we’re basically helping to participate in potential deportation of somebody not even convicted of a crime yet,” Dyer said.

Dyer recently spoke on the topic Monday, Jan. 20, the day of Trump’s inauguration and Martin Luther King Jr. Day, at a “We Stand with Our Immigrant Neighbors” solidarity vigil at the Wesley Foundation and First United Methodist Church social hall in Ann Arbor.

In northern Washtenaw County, Northfield Township Police Chief Martin Smith said his department has had to contact ICE and could hold people for ICE, but it is very rare.

“I’ve been here for 18 years, and I can probably tell you maybe 10 times in 18 years, we’ve had to check with ICE,” Smith said in the MLive article.

Chelsea, a community in western Washtenaw County, recently passed a new policy prohibiting city employees, elected officials and members of city boards from asking about immigration status in many cases, according to this MLive report. The city also prohibits any city public servant from asking someone seeking police services, victims or witnesses for their immigration status.

Chelsea City Council isn’t the first city in Washtenaw County to enact such a policy. Ann Arbor passed a city ordinance in 2017 when Trump first became president, and a number of local families found themselves facing potential deportation, MLive reports.

In West Michigan’s largest city, Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom said he plans to take a similar stance, MLive reports. His officers will not arrest or detain people solely on the basis of an immigration violation. Winstrom said the department’s policy was created in 2019 and is not new.

The U.S. Department of Justice has ordered federal prosecutors to investigate state or local officials who they believe are interfering with the administration’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigration. It could lead to criminal charges and challenges in court, the Associated Press reported.

Following Trump’s orders, and based on a clear mandate from voters who elected him, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement didn’t waste any time and started deportation efforts this week.

The “largest deportation operation” in U.S. history is underway as hundreds of “illegal immigrant criminals” were arrested Thursday and flown out of the U.S., the White House said. Images of illegal criminal aliens boarding airplanes have started circulating on the news.

Elected officials in sanctuary cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles have said they will continue to harbor and support illegals and deter ICE’s efforts to find and arrest illegal immigrants.

However, in places like Philadelphia and New York City, the resistance seems to be softening after drugs and crime have skyrocketed and the cities have struggled to cope with a surge in undocumented migrants in recent years.

New York’s Democratic Mayor Eric Adams, who met with Trump after the election, said his office will work with ICE to apprehend criminals who are in the country illegally, NBC reports.

The U.S. Department of Justice has ordered federal prosecutors to investigate state or local officials who they believe are interfering with the administration’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigration. It could lead to criminal charges and challenges in court, the Associated Press reports.

Following Trump’s orders, and based on a clear mandate from voters who elected him, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement didn’t waste any time and started deportation efforts this week.

Images of illegal criminal aliens boarding airplanes have started circulating on the news.

Elected officials in sanctuary cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles have said they will continue to harbor and support illegals and deter ICE’s efforts to find and arrest illegal immigrants.

However, in places like Philadelphia and New York City, the resistance seems to be softening after drugs and crime have skyrocketed and the cities have struggled to cope with a surge in undocumented migrants in recent years.

New York’s Democratic Mayor Eric Adams, who met with Trump after the election, said his office will work with ICE to apprehend criminals who are in the country illegally, NBC reports.