The Douglas County sheriff announced Thursday that he wants to contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold migrant detainees at Omaha’s largest local jail, offering reasons including that it would bring in funds to boost his department’s trimmed budget.

The overture was rebuffed by the head of the County Board, which also oversees the jail as the Board of Corrections. Board Chair Roger Garcia, an outspoken critic of ICE tactics, responded in a brief statement that the board had not been involved in related conversations with Sheriff Aaron Hanson.

Garcia said he does not anticipate the board entertaining an ICE contract “any time in the foreseeable future.”

The authority to bring forth an agenda item to the Board of Commissioners or Corrections of the state’s most populated county lies with the board chair (Garcia) or a four-commissioner majority.

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Hanson, in his statement, said he has urged the County Board to reconsider entering into a detention agreement with ICE. Attached was an Oct. 7 memorandum addressed to Garcia and Vice Chair Mike Friend, which noted in part that nearly 80 workers detained in a June 10 Omaha immigration raid were transported to the Lincoln County jail in North Platte, which is more than four hours away.

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Hanson said that, for those individuals, a Douglas County-ICE detention contract could have meant staying nearer to loved ones, with “real, in-person access to legal representation” and access to Omaha’s “premier healthcare system, legal and support services.”

Furthermore, Hanson said, an ICE detention contract would result in “millions of dollars of much-needed revenue.” He said his department’s proposed budget was trimmed by nearly a half-million dollars and said the safety of county residents will suffer.

Hanson’s proposal comes as the State of Nebraska is transforming a McCook-based state prison facility into a nearly 300-bed Midwest hub for ICE detainees. That proposal, backed by Governor Jim Pillen and several state legislators, has sparked controversy and opposition from various organizations and some lawmakers.

“Ultimately we cannot control what the federal government does,” Hanson wrote to county commissioners. “What we can control is retaining our neighbors and shared constituents within our community as they navigate their due process.”

He contends the county jail is operating at “historic low capacity” and that space exists to “keep our neighbors in our community.”

LULAC’s role

Hanson’s statement also announced that his office and the LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens) Nebraska, had started discussions on “humane and accountable detention practices.”

The sheriff said that while his office and LULAC Nebraska hold different perspectives on whether the county should enter into a detention agreement with ICE, their dialogue “reflects a commitment to transparency and community input.”

Elsa Aranda, LULAC Nebraska state director, said she has offered to help develop independent oversight structures and detainee support frameworks to ensure fairness.

However, national LULAC spokesman David Cruz told the Nebraska Examiner that the sheriff’s statement was “premature” and that “any inference that LULAC is either supporting or endorsing or approving such a project would be inaccurate.”

He said the civil rights organization’s national leadership did not approve “a public statement using the name of LULAC in such a context.” LULAC describes itself as the largest and oldest Hispanic and Latin-American civil rights organization in the U.S.

Cruz said LULAC’s national president Ramon Palomares and advisor Hector Flores did speak with Hanson and his chief deputy at a conference they all attended in Dallas — as the sheriff wrote in his memo to the County Board.

But he said that the LULAC representatives did not know beforehand the topic to be discussed. “They went and listened,” he said, and said they’d take it back to the organization’s attorneys.

Aranda, in remarks included in the sheriff’s statement, said her role as Nebraska state director was “to ensure that if detention occurs, it happens under humane, fair and transparent conditions – and that the rights and dignity of every person are protected, just as the sheriff is proposing.”

Cruz, however, said the national network’s stance is “staunch” opposition to detention centers for “detainees who are being held on immigration-related issues.” He added, “Any use of the name LULAC or the appearance lending weight to this decision would be inaccurate.”