Ocean County Removed From List Of 'Sanctuary' Cities For Jail Detainees, Freeholders Say

TOMS RIVER – Need sanctuary? Don't come to Ocean County.

“We are not a sanctuary county, nor has Ocean County ever had an interest in being a sanctuary county,” said Ocean County Freeholder John P. Kelly, Director of Law and Public Safety. “We have been actively working to correct the record and have Ocean County’s name removed from whatever lists are out there calling us a sanctuary county.''

Ocean County was recently listed as a sanctuary city on the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement website for jail detainees. Not so, Kelly said.

“ICE has taken steps to memorialize this information (March 31) by removing Ocean County’s name from its declined detainer outcome report list of sanctuary counties and cities,” Kelly said.

“A top priority for Ocean County is to make certain our citizens and visitors are safe here,” said Ocean County Freeholder Director Joseph H. Vicari. “We work with Homeland Security and law enforcement in a partnership. Our current inmate policy makes certain individuals like gang members here illegally who pose a significant threat to public safety are kept off of our streets and are given over to the proper authorities.”

Ocean County’s 48 Hour Immigration Detainer Policy was crafted on July 28, 2015 by Jail Warden Sandra Mueller. This was done to cooperate with the intention of detainer requests by ICE under the Priority Enforcement Program (PEP), according to a county press release.

Under the policy Ocean County would maintain custody, not to exceed 48 hours, of a removable alien who has been identified as an immigration enforcement priority under the Priority Enforcement Program and that probable cause existed that these individuals are removable aliens.

Earlier detainment procedures were not this specific and had not been created in partnership with ICE which appears to have resulted in the county being viewed as a sanctuary county.

Kelly noted another example of Ocean County’s cooperation with ICE is the assignment of an ICE officer to the Ocean County Department of Corrections to review all new commitments for possible ICE enforcement action.

Kelly said that under the Priority Enforcement Program, the DHS is enabled to work with state and local law enforcement to take custody of individuals who pose a danger to public safety before those individuals are released into our communities.

“Our detainer procedures went through some changes until we got together with ICE and hashed out a policy acceptable to all of us,” Kelly said.

Even after the county made revisions in its 2015 inmate policy, the county still was identified as a Sanctuary City on certain websites.

“Clearly we work cooperatively with ICE,” Kelly said. “We will continue to reach out to those agencies that list us incorrectly and also let them know we are not on the ICE declined detainer outcome report.”

Those agencies include the ACLU, the Center for Immigration Studies and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center and some media outlets.

Image: Courtesy of Ocean County Corrections Department