EVANSVILLE — Under former President Joe Biden's administration, federal immigration officials rarely picked up suspected undocumented immigrants from the Vanderburgh County jail even when jail officials alerted the government to potential immigration violations.
It remains to be seen if or when that could change as President Donald Trump works to retool the nation's immigration enforcement system, though his advisors are probing how best to rapidly deport the thousands of undocumented immigrants already detained in county jails and lockups nationwide.
In Evansville, the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office has for years alerted Immigration and Customs Enforcement, often abbreviated as ICE, to potential immigration violations among its jail population, Sheriff Noah Robinson said in an interview with the Courier & Press.
"I definitely don't want to be releasing someone out of this jail that poses a threat to public safety and is in the country illegally," Robinson said.
Voters tapped Robinson to run one of Indiana's largest sheriff's offices in 2022, a year in which Robinson was the only Democrat to come out on top in a countywide race. He shuns the view held by some other members of his party that local law enforcement should not cooperate with the federal government on immigration matters.
According to Robinson, the sheriff's office alerts ICE each time a suspected undocumented immigrant is scheduled to be released from the jail. The federal government can then file what is known as an immigration detainer asking the sheriff's office to hold the person for an additional 48 hours so ICE can assume custody of them.
But last year, despite 75 such alerts, ICE only petitioned the sheriff's office to hold four people on its behalf, including two people who were set to be transferred to Indiana Department of Corrections facilities, according to Robinson, who provided inmate demographic data to the Courier & Press.
Trump and administration officials have said in recent weeks that their sweeping actions on immigration are designed to curb an "invasion" at the southern border that have led to a surge in migrant crime even in small-to-midsized cities.
Sheriff's office data shows that non-U.S. citizens who may have entered the country illegally accounted for just a tiny fraction of arrests in Vanderburgh County, amounting to less than 1% of all jail bookings.
The Courier & Press submitted a list of questions to ICE for this article. An agency spokesperson initially replied in an email saying they were out of the office, but upon their listed return date, the agency did not respond to subsequent inquiries.
Robinson noted that it was "exceedingly rare" for ICE to file immigration detainers in response to jail referrals under the Biden administration, though he thinks that dynamic could change as Trump's policies take hold.
"In fact, I fully expect it to, but we just don't have an impression yet for how much more aggressive the new administration may be with requesting these detainers," Robinson said.
What does the data show about immigration and crime in Vanderburgh County?
The sheriff's office data reviewed by the Courier & Press lists the country of birth for all persons detained at the Vanderburgh County jail between 2021 and 2024.
The data itself does not paint a complete portrait of the immigration status of persons in sheriff’s office custody, but it does help to illustrate the agency’s potential role in Trump's expanding immigration enforcement efforts.
Not everyone who was born outside of the United States and later booked at the jail entered the country illegally. Robinson explained that children born to U.S. service members on military bases in Europe or Asia may have their place of birth listed as “Germany” or “Japan.”
“Likewise, a child who immigrated to the U.S. 30 years ago and is now a U.S. citizen would still be listed as ‘Mexico’ for place of birth,” Robinson said.
In 2024, the jail housed a total of 368 people who were born outside of the United States, the data shows. The number of people housed at the jail who were born in a country besides the United States increased each year between 2021 and 2024, according to the data.
In 2021, the jail housed 143 people who were born outside of the United States, with a little less than half of that group hailing from Mexico or Haiti.
Still, potential noncitizens make up a small percentage of the total jail population: Last year, Robinson said his agency booked more than 9,300 people into the sprawling jail facility, which is located across a set of train tracks from a busy stretch of U.S 41 on Evansville’s North Side.
In 2024, the 75 people jail officials referred to ICE for potential immigration violations accounted for less than 1% of the jail’s total population.
When accounting for all foreign-born persons who spent time detained inside the county jail last year, including those who are U.S. citizens or in the country legally, that group amounts to approximately 3.8% of all jail bookings.
Compare that to the county as a whole: according to the most recent U.S. Bureau of Census data, about 3.3% of Vanderburgh County residents are foreign born.
Local cooperation with ICE increasingly a focus for Indiana Republicans
In January, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun signed an executive order that in part sought to curtail potential refusals by local law enforcement to work with ICE.
That same month, state Attorney General Todd Rokita sued St. Joseph County Sheriff Bill Redman and his police department for allegedly "refusing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities."
In a written statement, the county police department said Rokita's claim that it had failed to work with ICE was false.
Last year, Vanderburgh County voters overwhelming tapped Trump to return to the White House, and local Republicans won a 6-1 advantage on the County Council.
The lopsided victories for Republicans in a year when the party pressed for aggressive immigration reform could hint at just how eager county voters are to see Trump's vision for ramped-up deportations and a locked-down southern border pressed into reality.
In January, congressional Republicans and Democrats worked together to shuttle a new immigration bill to Trump's desk, the Laken Riley Act, which would require the federal government to detain undocumented immigrants accused of certain crimes, including low-level offenses such as shoplifting.
Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law during a ceremony on Jan. 29, one of many sweeping policy changes to the nation’s immigration system under Trump’s administration. It isn’t clear, though, how fast those changes could trickle down to Evansville.
Robinson said his agency was prepared to handle a potential uptick in immigration detainers, in part because the total number of jail inmates who could potentially lack U.S. citizenship or legal status is small.
Officers have discretion when referring potential non-U.S. citizens to ICE
But just how does the sheriff's office determine when to notify ICE that someone in its custody may have entered the country unlawfully?
According to Robinson, referrals are made largely at the arresting officer's discretion — an aspect of the system he would like to see reformed.
“This is one area that the sheriff's office needs to improve in terms of its written policy,” Robinson said. “It’s rather vague right now.”
In straightforward terms, the issue comes down to whether the arresting officer suspects the person they are booking entered the United States illegally, Robinson said.
”You’ve got the intersectionality of race here as well,” Robinson explained. “And you know, you can quickly get into an area where I’m deeply uncomfortable: making a judgment call about whether to notify ICE based on someone’s appearance or national origin.”
David Guerrettaz, an immigration lawyer practicing in Evansville, argues that officer discretion should play little role in determining whether an agency refers a person's case to ICE.
"Immigration law is not taught in police academies," Guerrataz said, adding that his son is a police officer and that he supports law enforcement. "Why is the officer even going to the next step of trying to determine whether the person has legal status?"
Based on notifications from sheriff's offices and police departments, ICE can issue detainers requesting that the local agency hold a person for up to 48 hours after their scheduled release from jail, and while the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office honors ICE detainers, their use has proven controversial in other jurisdictions.
That's in large part because immigration detainers are typically not issued by a judge.
The Law Enforcement Immigration Task Force, an advocacy organization that counts the South Bend Police Department and Bloomington Police Department among its members, found that immigration detainers can expose local agencies to legal liability and "significant litigation costs."
"In recent years, the courts have made clear that detainers carry with them a host of significant legal complications — complications that often prevent jurisdictions from honoring them," the group wrote in a January report. "Examination of the constitutional, statutory, regulatory framework underpinning immigration detainers make clear that they are voluntary and legally dubious, making it difficult for cities and counties to honor them."
Proponents of ramped up immigration enforcement contend that detainers play a crucial role in public safety by enabling ICE to take custody of criminals who entered the country illegally.
In a recent executive order, the Trump administration made clear that it will track which agencies refuse to honor the detainers and threatened to withhold federal funds from such agencies. Through multiple policies, the Trump administration also plans to expand their use.
While fights over immigration policy swirl in Washington, Robinson hopes the renewed focus on enforcement will yield additional clarification from ICE officials regarding the standards they want local police to rely on when officers and deputies refer potential immigration violations to the federal government — referrals local police are increasingly required to make.
“I want a clear set of guidelines to where the discretion to notify is largely placed on a procedure and not someone's judgment call, because I think that's the only fair way to do it,” Robinson said.