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One hundred and forty people have been transferred from Teton County to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since March 2025. That has some community members frustrated with Teton County Sheriff Matt Carr and his department’s cooperation with federal authorities.
Since March 2025, the Teton County jail has held detainees at ICE’s request for up to 48 hours, including cases without a judicial warrant. That’s after Carr changed a policy upon meeting with federal officers about the legality of honoring detainer requests.
About 35 people gathered outside the Teton County Jail on Saturday, Feb. 28, to protest the change. The sheriff and county politicians, however, say public pushback has been minimal and no further change is likely.
Carr told KHOL he took an oath to uphold state statute and that he is simply following the law. He says the county has long notified ICE when non-citizens are booked in jail. The difference now is that immigration officials are coming to Teton County to pick up people.
Craig Logan helps organize Teton County Indivisible, a local chapter of the national progressive organization. He started a petition to urge Carr and the sheriff’s office “to cease conducting immigration related investigations pursuant to unrelated traffic stops that exceed the scope of the original stop or investigation.”
The petition also asks the sheriff to “stop holding suspected undocumented immigrants in extended detention at ICE’s request and without a judge-signed warrant.”
Logan noted it was the first time his group has spoken out directly against local immigration enforcement policies. Logan said turnout to the protest was lower than he saw in other recent protests may be because the protest targeted law enforcement.
“That may put some anxiety in people’s minds,” Logan said.
Eighty-nine-year-old Shirley Craighead wasn’t deterred.
“I’m here to try to get back my country,” Craighead said. “It’s not the country that I grew up in or that I loved. I feel that we can get it back, but we have to work at it.”
She said she worries about violence from recent ICE enforcement actions across the country.
As did Vanessa Chavarriaga Posada, herself an immigrant. “ICE is getting more aggressive, starting to target more US citizens and take away all of our constitutional rights,” she said. “Knowing what’s been happening nationwide sparked conversation here.”
Teton County Commissioner Mark Newcomb expressed a similar sentiment.
“The last thing I would want to see is the kind of behaviour that ICE has exhibited in other communities,” he said.
While he has heard some concerns from residents, the longtime Teton County politician described the outreach as limited compared to other issues facing the county.
No commissioner has formally raised the issue, he added.
“A commissioner hasn’t brought it up. And I haven’t placed it on the agenda.”
Newcomb said he plans to speak with Carr before considering whether the issue should come before the commission.
