photo by: Chris Conde/ Journal-World

The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center is pictured in September 2018.

Story updated at 7:11 p.m. Friday, Jan. 20:

The Douglas County sheriff is seeking legal advice on when he must comply with warrants from federal immigration officials, but in the meantime a woman who could be facing deportation continues to be held in the local jail.

The issue arose this week in the case of a woman who was arrested on a misdemeanor battery charge, but before she could bond out of jail, the sheriff’s office received an administrative warrant from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which suspects the woman of immigration violations.

The woman’s local attorney asked Douglas County District Court Judge Blake Glover to order the sheriff to release the woman and not honor the ICE warrant. Glover declined to issue such a ruling, saying whether the woman should be held in jail at the request of ICE “is not something I can take up at this time.”

The attorney, Samuel Allison-Natale, now contends that Douglas County Sheriff Jay Armbrister could choose to ignore the ICE warrant on his own, in part because the warrant is signed only by an ICE agent and not a judge.

Armbrister said he’s not sure Allison-Natale’s legal analysis is correct, and he intends to hold the woman in jail for the 48 hours required by the ICE warrant. But Armbrister said the case has raised issues that he now wants resolved to guide his office in future cases.

He said this particular type of ICE warrant — an ICE I-200 warrant — is significantly different from a standard warrant that his office most often receives in cases not related to immigration.

“”When our agency requests an arrest warrant for a person, it goes to a judge and only after a judge signs it does it become valid in not just our eyes, but the law’s eyes. These ICE warrants are indeed signed by an Agent and not a Judge, which is why I am now looking more closely at my options in this instance, which is the ICE I-200 Warrant alone,” Armbrister said in a letter to the Journal-World.

Armbrister said he now is seeking legal advice from a county attorney to determine whether the sheriff’s office has a legal obligation to honor the ICE warrants or whether he can disregard them.

Armbrister said the department policy — as set by former Sheriff Ken McGovern — was to honor the warrants if ICE put them in written form, but to not honor simply verbal requests from ICE.

Armbrister previously has been an advocate for giving cities and counties the ability to decide when to cooperate with ICE. As the Journal-World reported, in March of 2022 Armbrister testified in the Kansas Statehouse against HB 2717, which sought to eliminate the autonomy cities and law enforcement agencies had when deciding to cooperate with ICE.

In that testimony, Armbrister said provisions within the bill would “knee-cap” his ability to protect people living in his jurisdiction and that it would “immediately place a fear into the heart of any person who may be present in my community not through the fullest of legal means and processes.”

Armbrister further said that cooperating with ICE in certain situations could cause people in the community to avoid law enforcement even if they are victims of a crime and that if a victim does not report criminals or, worse, child predators, for fear of deportation, then that criminal or predator would be able to live in the community unchecked.

Armbrister this week said he stood by those statements, but it didn’t change the fact that he feels obligated currently to honor the ICE warrant.

“I stand behind my statements even more strongly today than I did the day I said them. I want the people in our community to not fear the Sheriff’s Office or any law enforcement agency and to call us when they need help. But, once a person has been arrested, I’m afraid there is little I can do for a person who has a valid arrest warrant from another law enforcement agency. And in this case, that is exactly what has happened,” Armbrister said.

The situation could change in the future, though, if the county’s legal counsel advises Armbrister that an administrative warrant from ICE is not a warrant that he is legally obligated to honor. But Armbrister said there needs to be clear direction on that matter, rather than just leaving it to his office to solely decide.

“When a warrant is issued, rarely, if ever, can I as sheriff be the arbiter of what is and is not a valid warrant. That’s for the Judicial Branch to decide. I believe that sets a bad precedent to allow ANY Sheriff the power to decide what warrants they will or will not honor,” Armbrister wrote in the letter to the Journal-World.

The woman, Anabel Alonso-Martinez, 35, of Lawrence, was charged with misdemeanor domestic battery earlier this month for allegedly making contact with her husband and violating a protection order. Alonso-Martinez was charged with misdemeanor domestic battery after fighting with her husband in March of 2022 and was placed on diversion in August.

Armbrister said the fact that Alonso-Martinez had been in the Douglas County Jail prior to this most recent incident and had not received an ICE hold in the past is evidence that his office does not seek out ICE detainers but that he complied with the agency’s request only after the agency followed the established protocol.

Due to a variety of legal maneuvers in relation to Alonso-Martinez’s ICE detainer, the 48-hour period had yet to begin as of Friday evening. It will begin when she becomes eligible to be released on her local charges. Late Friday, a Douglas County District Court judge gave the sheriff 72 hours to either detail why Alonso-Martinez was in custody or release her, sheriff’s office spokesperson George Diepenbrock confirmed to the Journal-World.

— This story has been edited to reflect that the 48-hour hold period for Alonso-Martinez had yet to begin as of Friday evening.