Brenna Bird's loyalty oath
Iowa attorney general targets a county sheriff
Since he became president, Donald Trump has used bullying and intimidation to get his way.
He’s sought to punish law firms, universities, media and political enemies who don’t kneel before him.
He’s made it clear he expects subservience.
In Iowa, so apparently does Brenna Bird.
Iowa’s attorney general is demanding that Winneshiek County Sheriff Dan Marx submit what amounts to a loyalty oath to federal immigration authorities. If not, Winneshiek County risks losing state funding.
This controversy began in February when the sheriff, in a Facebook post addressed to the “people of Winneshiek County,” said his office would resist federal “non-judicially vetted” immigration detainers and added he had a longtime stance of not recognizing detainers.
Immigration detainers are federal requests for local or state law enforcement authorities to hold prisoners suspected of immigration violations for pickup, or to provide notification when they’re going to be released.
The constitutionality of honoring these requests, which have been used to hold people after they should have been released from confinement, has been debated for years.
After a complaint by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, Bird investigated the post and has now filed a lawsuit against Marx and Winneshiek County, claiming the sheriff discouraged cooperation with federal immigration authorities in violation of state law and made false claims about detainers. She has asked a Polk County court to declare the county ineligible for state funding.
I think there are a few facts to consider:
First, there doesn’t appear to be an existing detainer request that Marx has refused to honor.
Second, since 2018, Marx’s office has maintained a policy he says is in compliance with state law pertaining to enforcement of immigration laws, and he’s said he will continue to follow that policy.
Third, since 2018 his office has never—not once—denied a federal detainer request, according to Bird’s report on the incident. There have been 21 such requests. Bird’s report says this record shows the policy of the sheriff’s office is to comply with detainer requests.
Fourth, the sheriff has also removed the original post and admitted he could have been clearer.
Still, Bird is demanding that Marx post a new statement to the people of Winneshiek County that disavows the original post, admits it was wrong and declares state law requires “full and complete cooperation with federal immigration authorities,” while promising he will comply.
Leaving aside the fact Iowa Republicans didn’t grant immigration authorities under the Biden administration its “full and complete cooperation,” this pledge denies local law enforcement the discretion to uphold a person’s legal protections that might come into conflict with immigration enforcement tactics.
As Marx notes, he is sworn to uphold the Constitution.
That could provide some challenges.
In the past few weeks, Trump’s immigration authorities have engaged in questionable, cruel and possibly illegal activities.
Among them:
Immigration agents in Massachusetts detained a Tufts University student who was in the US on a visa, and they’ve been holding her in Louisiana, with the strong possibility that her offense was simply co-authoring an opinion piece in a local newspaper.
A 25-year-old German man, crossing the border into the US from Mexico, was detained, chained to a bench, denied a lawyer and kept behind bars for 16 days before being allowed to book a flight home. Other tourists also have been caught up in this web.
The Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelans (not to their home country) but to a prison in El Salvador dubbed a “hellhole. Administration officials claim the immigrants were affiliated with a gang. However, they refused to provide proof of this affiliation in court, and they may even have contravened a court order by whisking them out of the country after being told not to.
The Trump administration also admitted this week that it mistakenly deported an immigrant living in Maryland with us wife, a US citizen, and their child to this violent prison. Now they have claimed they can do nothing to get him back.
A lawsuit filed in California alleges immigration raids there “violated protections afforded by federal law and the U.S. Constitution when they rounded up and deported scores of laborers in the country without legal authorization,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
These kinds of tactics are prompting local law enforcement in parts of the country to distinguish themselves from federal immigration agents. And even some conservatives are beginning to have qualms.
Yet, Bird now demands, in exchange for not threatening the county’s eligibility for state funding, that the Winneshiek County sheriff swear “full and complete cooperation with federal immigration authorities.”
That kind of pledge might work for Bird and other Trump loyalists, but those who care about the Constitution may think otherwise.
I can see how Marx’s original post might raise questions in the public, given his record of compliance with previous detainers. But I doubt, given this record, as well as the sheriff’s pledge to follow its longstanding policy, there is any confusion among his deputies about what is expected of them.
Frankly, I think we’re in dangerous territory when a local elected official faces sanction for what he says to his constituents in a Facebook post. Nonetheless, Marx has appeared somewhat contrite about his original post, and the Decorah Leader newspaper even reported county officials said they proposed an alternative statement to Bird’s office, but it was rejected.
So, why the hardball tactics?
I can only come to one conclusion: Donald Trump demands complete subservience. So does Brenna Bird.
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From the nationally respected Tom Miller to Bird casts a dark shadow of responsibility on the voters who elected her. Robert Ray wouldn't recognize the pit this state has fallen into.
I continue to marvel at Bird’s fealty to Trump, wondering about how her personal ambitions are seemingly tied to earning his favor.