Jail Trust Member Speaks On Dispute Between Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office And ICE

ICE and the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office aren’t quite seeing eye to eye after an undocumented immigrant was released from the jail before ICE officials could get there to bring him into their custody.

By federal law ICE was supposed to receive a 48-hour notice before the inmate, Ulises Perez, was released. They said they didn’t get that.

The Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office admitted they called ICE officials an hour and a half before they released Perez from the jail. They said they are always willing to cooperate with ICE and tried to. After that hour and a half, Oklahoma County officials said they had no legal authority to keep Perez there.

Right now, jail policies and procedures all fall under the sheriff, P.D. Taylor. But soon it will be a joint effort in creating things like that because the jail trust, formed of nine members, will be in charge.

Kevin Calvey, District 3 Commissioner and a member of the Jail Trust, said that he wants the county to work together more with ICE officials and old inmates with detainers for 48 hours.

“ICE detainers are perfectly legal, they have been upheld by a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals,” said Calvey.

He expects that the jail trust will take over around the beginning of the year and he said he will be advocating for certain things to change.

“I will urge that the trust, once we take over, we change the current sheriff’s policy and cooperate with ICE,” said Calvey.

Officials said ICE employees do work in the jail, but the sheriff’s officer suggested that they keep someone there 24/7 to transport their detainees.

The next jail trust meeting is set for October 15.