Jackson County Jail may cooperate with ICE

By Elizabeth Ferszt

Contributing Writer

The Jackson County Jail may soon cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in assessing the immigration status of any person in its custody at the 1995 Chanter Road facility. However, this does not mean that if a person is arrested and charged in the county, and then housed at the jail, he/she will be asked about their legal status in the country in terms of being a citizen, a resident alien, a Visa holder, or undocumented.

According to Jackson County Sheriff, Gary Schuette, “We do ask state and country of origin as part of our intake [booking] process, but we don’t ask immigration status. This process would only begin if there is a warrant in the law enforcement database.”

The sheriff further explained, “This only pertains to people who have been arrested on a criminal charge, are in our jail for that offense, and then also have a warrant in the law enforcement data base through ICE. Currently we do not have the authority to hold the person for ICE.” Schuette continued, “By having our corrections deputies properly trained through this program [WSO], we would be able to hold an in-custody person, after they either bond out on their state charge or otherwise are released on state charges, for up to 48 hours or until ICE picks them up on their warrant; whichever comes first. If ICE does not show up within 48 hours, then we must let them go.”

However, according to reporting last week, by Rachel Fulton at WILX Lansing, The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office has officially enrolled in the Warrant Service Officer model of the federal 287(g) program, making it the first law enforcement agency in Michigan to participate in this type of immigration partnership. This version of the story seemed to imply that Jackson County was taking an active or even aggressive role in immigration enforcement. However, Schuette clarified “this process is no different than the process we have for holding people with warrants for other jurisdictions.”

The Warrant Service Officer model is an application process with ICE “whereby ERO provides legal authority for state and local law enforcement officers to execute civil immigration warrants on behalf of ERO,” according to an ICE factsheet from Feb. 2025. An ERO stands for ‘Enforcement and Removal Operations.’

However, Schuette also stated in an email that as sheriff, he “signed a memorandum to participate in the program, but [they’ve] not received a fully executed agreement back yet,” meaning that Jackson County is not yet officially a WSO/ERO. “Next, we would then be required to have background checks completed on our deputies, a training course completed by those deputies, and then the passage of a test by those same deputies, in order to be part of the program. Until all that has been completed, we cannot participate in the program,” he said.