Most Pennsylvania counties won't hold jail inmates for Immigration and Customs Enforcement without a warrant.
They basically can't due to the liability potential established by a 2014 federal court decision.
Reasons aside, any law enforcement agency that declines a detainer request is now being called out in weekly reports as per President Donald Trump's executive order.
ICE's so-called declined detainer outcome reports were initiated amid federal officials' threats to claw back or withhold federal funding from so-called "sanctuary cities" (a term which still hasn't been legally defined).
The first report erroneously stated that Franklin County declined detainer requests during a week when inmates were, in fact, transferred into ICE custody.
ICE now blames the mistake on there being multiple Franklin Counties in other states.
In Chester, jail officials told ICE they didn't have custody of the person being sought by the agency. This showed up as a refusal on the report. But it turns out ICE was wrong about the location. The person was incarcerated elsewhere, according to the agency's correction posted online last Thursday.
Philadelphia also contested information in the first report, but hasn't been in touch with ICE about the matter, says spokeswoman Ajeenah Amir.
ICE hasn't responded to questions about why the correction took nearly two weeks. ICE officials in local field offices apologized for the mistakes within a few days of the report's publication March 20.
Find this report and others at the site of our partner, Keystone Crossroads.
