Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is continuing to exercise his new authority to enforce the state’s anti-sanctuary city statute by demanding a wide range of documents, including written, electronic and recorded material, from the South Bend and Seymour police departments, which he says he needs to determine whether their immigration policies comply with state law.
Rokita issued identical civil investigative demands to South Bend and Seymour on Oct. 18. His office, he said, is investigating whether the police departments violated state law by maintaining policies that prevent their officers from cooperating with federal officials on matters concerning citizenship, immigration status, or enforcement of federal immigration law.
Since June, Rokita has sent letters to two city councils as well as four city and county law enforcement agencies, threatening to sue if they did not rescind their welcoming ordinances or policies that he deemed were creating sanctuary cities. The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office is currently the only local government entity fighting Rokita in court.
South Bend and Seymour are the first local government entities to receive civil investigative demands, or CIDs, from the attorney general as part of his enforcement of the state’s anti-sanctuary city law. Also, by including Seymour, this is the first time Rokita has targeted a Republican city with the mayor and common council members all belonging to the GOP.
In a press release entitled, “Do Seymour and South Bend have ‘sanctuary city’ policies? Attorney General Todd Rokita is getting answers,” Rokita said he issued the demands in response to concerns from community members and elected officials.
“We are working to ensure units of local government are following the law,” Rokita said in the press release. “We are putting Hoosiers first—not illegal aliens.”
However, Democrat Destiny Wells, who is running against Rokita in the November general election, called Rokita’s investigation a “desperate, politically motivated distraction.”
“Let me be clear: the Attorney General’s office should be about serving Hoosiers, not serving up political theater,” Wells said in a statement. “This kind of fear-mongering and divisive rhetoric is not what Indiana needs. If I were in Rokita’s position, I’d be focused on the issues that affect real, everyday Hoosiers—not abusing the power of the office to score cheap political points.”
The CIDs include several attachments that detail the kinds of documents the attorney general’s office is seeking.
Rokita is requiring the police departments to turn over “each and every standard, practice, policy, procedure, or guidance” from Oct. 18, 2021, to the present related to the sharing of information with federal immigration authorities, collection or use of information about any individual’s citizenship or immigration status, and enforcement of immigration laws.
The documents, according to the civil investigative demands, include all written or graphic material, such as letters, memoranda, contracts, agreements, charts, spreadsheets, calendars, ledgers and logs. Also covered by the document demand are hard disks, floppy disks, phonograph records, cassette tapes and reel-to-reel tapes.
In particular, the attorney general’s office wants documents related to detainer requests. These requests are issued by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, often asking a local law enforcement agency to maintain custody of an individual suspected of being in the country illegally. The detainer requests are not arrest warrants and do not carry any force of law, so compliance is strictly voluntary.
Even so, Rokita accused the other municipalities and law enforcement agencies he targeted previously of having policies that prohibited their employees from honoring ICE detainer requests.
Rokita’s office did not respond to a question about where he would find the workers to review what could potentially be a substantial amount of documents submitted by South Bend and Seymour.
In the press release, Rokita emphasized his threat to sue South Bend and Seymour.
“A failure to comply with the CID may result in legal action,” Rokita said. “If the documents produced show that either police department has unlawful immigration policies on the books, we will take action as warranted to ensure compliance with state law.”
Wells accused Rokita of forcing local police to divert scarce resources in order to boost his political campaign.
“With our local police already stretched thin, working tirelessly to protect our communities, Rokita is pulling them away from their real duties to chase headlines,” Wells said. “This has nothing to do with public safety and everything to do with salvaging his campaign in areas where he’s struggling in the polls.”