Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt and countless other local law enforcement agencies are caught in the middle of a battle between federal immigration enforcements across the Twin Cities, and protesters, politicians, and other state leadership.
The agencies are trying to strike a balance between their support for dealing with criminal investigations, and how to stay connected to the communities they serve, and Witt is acknowledging how difficult that is with a few thousand ICE and Border Patrol agents basically occupying the Twin Cities.
Witt says most of all, she's concerned about the community relationships being fractured as federal agents continue Operation Metro Surge. She told WCCO Radio's Adam and Jordana that a lot of work has been done since George Floyd's murder, at the hands of former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin, to rebuild trust in police.
"Some, because we realize it's not all agents that are doing this, but the impact that one or two, or three, or four, that they can have on our communities by treating people poorly, and violating people's rights, it affects all law enforcement, local as well as federal," Sheriff Witt said.
She is also pushing back on the federal government's demand that Minnesota jails let agents in to deport those with detainers. That's been used by some in the Trump administration as one of the driving forces for putting so many agents on the streets in the Twin Cities.
Witt says that detainers are often very generic, and not signed by a judge, but adds there is a simple, legal solution to that cause that isn't not being used.
"If you have the probable cause, and you want that person, and you know that you have the legal authority to deport that person, it would be very helpful if they had a warrant," says Witt. "If you have a warrant, no sheriff would have any discretion about turning people over to the federal government."
Witt says it's not that jails don't want to cooperate with federal officials, but that there is - and should be - a process that needs to be followed in order to do so.
Witt also responded to criticism against her department for having "a presence" during some protests against ICE and federal agents, with some community leaders claiming the department is "working" with ICE.
Witt says she encourages people to exercise their First Amendment rights, peacefully, but that her department has a duty to keep people safe no matter what they believe.
"At the end of the day, we will respond to all help calls," Witt explains. "We do respond to protests. We do respond to when things get violent. It does not matter somebody's race, religion, profession, political affiliations. We do not have the luxury of saying, oh well, we're not going to that one."