Oregon's U.S. Attorney Billy Williams must be a disappointed guy. His failure in 2016 to win a conviction in the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Reserve was followed by getting a new boss in Jeff Sessions, a man who doesn't worry about Fourth Amendment protections. In an apparent effort to keep his job, Williams is attacking Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese and county commission for doing their jobs: requiring judicial warrants rather than legally flimsy Immigration and Customs Enforcement administrative warrants.
Clackamas County learned the hard way in 2014 when it was found to have violated Fourth Amendment rights by prolonging incarceration without probable cause. Then the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that state and local law enforcement authorities are not required to comply with requests from ICE to hold people on detainers without probable cause. That ruling also recognized that states and localities may share liability when they participate in such detentions. Another case in Rhode Island reaffirmed that decision.
The law is clear. What is not clear is how we as a community can stop prosecutors like Billy Williams from tossing aside the Bill of Rights in in order to do the Trump administration's bullying.
The best way might be to support elected officials like Sheriff Reese and the county commissioners who have the guts to withstand political bullying to protect the county from legal liability while safeguarding the rights of those incarcerated.
Jan Johnson, Northeast Portland