Cook County Sheriff Says ICE Claims About No Access To Jail Are False

CHICAGO — The Cook County Sheriff’s Office issued a statement that reports of it refusing requests from federal authorities seeking entry into the jail are not true, according to a statement on the sheriff’s official Facebook page.

Further, the sheriff’s maintains there is nothing preventing federal officials from picking up detainees in custody that have federal criminal warrants “as they have done countless times, as recently as Monday.”

The sheriff’s statement said they were sure where the false narrative is coming from.

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“If federal authorities believe that as many as 300 individuals currently in custody at the jail have criminal arrest warrants, they can send us the warrants and pick them up, as they have done for years,” the sheriff’s statement continued.

Last Sunday, Tom Homan, President Donald Trump’s “border czar,” was in Chicago for the first round of immigration raids, along with ICE, the FBI, ATF and U.S. Marshals.

“Sanctuary cities lock us out of the jails,” Homan told ABC 7 Chicago. “So instead of ICE being able to arrest the bad guy, that the criminal alien in the safety and security of a jail, where the officers are safe, the alien is safe, the public safe, sanctuary cities release him back in the community.”

The Cook County Sheriff did not mention U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or any other specific federal agency.