Federal immigration arrest outside Kane jail was legal, state’s attorney and undersheriff say

Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser and Undersheriff Amy Johnson reminded people Wednesday that federal immigration agents are allowed to arrest people outside of the county sheriff’s office and courthouses.

She sent out the notice after a video was posted online of two men being arrested Sunday evening after they left the sheriff’s office.

The two men had spent the weekend in jail serving sentences.

A sheriff’s deputy was seen in the video. He was asking about the owner of a lost debit card and was not involved in the federal immigration action, the release said.

The sheriff’s office “did not coordinate in any way with the federal agents who conducted these arrests,” the release said.

State law does not prevent federal criminal arrests. Federal agents can view public court and jail records, and state law does not stop agents from entering public spaces such as the judicial center parking lot, the release said.

Kane County prohibits the use of county property for staging areas, processing sites or operational bases for civil immigration enforcement. Mosser previously had said such bans, adopted by local government bodies, are not enforceable because they violate the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

State law prohibits federal immigration agents from detaining people with civil immigration cases within 1,000 feet of county courthouses, if those people are at the courthouses to conduct business. But the remedy is for those people to sue the federal government, according to the release.