Cass Co. Sheriff Explains Local Law Enforcement’s Role On Any Possible ICE Enforcement Actions

By Benjamin Cox on January 23, 2025 at 6:18am

One West Central Illinois county sheriff has laid out what his department can and cannot do in the event that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials begin detainment and deportation operations under new directives from the Trump administration.

Cass County Sheriff Devron Ohrn said in a Facebook Post on Tuesday that his office has received several inquiries about the sheriff’s office’s role in immigration matters.

President Donald Trump has vowed to maintain a campaign promise to carry out the “largest mass deportation in history.” He wasted no time on Inauguration Day before signing multiple immigration-related executive orders, including ones reinstating the “Remain in Mexico” policy, pausing refugee admissions, as well as an order ending birthright citizenship for babies born in the U.S. to immigrant parents.

In the Facebook post yesterday, Ohrn referred to the 2017 Illinois Trust Act which generally prohibits local law enforcement in Illinois from participating in immigration enforcement. Among other things, the law prohibits law enforcement from holding someone just because of a request from ICE. A modification in 2021 ended mandatory detention requirements and slows down deportation proceedings. The law was then upheld in the federal court system.

Ohrn says that the law does not grant Cass County Sheriff Deputies with any authority to act under civil immigration violations without a signed judicial warrant. Under the law we are not allowed to support in anyway an immigration agent’s enforcement operations. We are not granted under law the ability to inquire or investigate the citizenship or immigration status or place of birth of a person that has been stopped or detained. Ohrn says members of his department are allowed and will cooperate with Federal Officials in investigations of violations of criminal law.

Cass County has long been a haven for Latin American immigrants, and now has seen a large influx of immigrants from Western Africa. According to population demographics from the 2020 census, approximately 42% of the population of about 6,000 people is Latino or African-American in Beardstown – one of the largest percentages for a municipality in West Central Illinois. By contrast, Jacksonville’s population of over 17,000 people is approximately 10 1/2% African-American and Latino.

A lawsuit filed by 18 states have argued that President Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship is a violation of the citizenship clause in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

Several news outlets have reported that potential raids for ICE enforcement in major U.S. Cities, including Chicago, have not occurred as of press time.