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Only one person has been confirmed to have been detained following the Feb. 7 presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a Jackson apartment complex.
That is much lower than the supposed 17 warrants originally reported by KHOL and the Jackson Hole Daily, both citing Teton County Sheriff Matt Carr, who said ICE was looking for “targeted individuals.”
A federal agent contacted Carr the morning of Feb. 7, he said, giving a heads up that ICE had warrants for 17 people for an operation that would be underway that day.
Since the agent didn’t work directly for ICE, which has not yet shared the warrants with media or local law enforcement, Carr, at the time and still, considers that number “unconfirmed.”
Jackson immigration attorney and public defender Elisabeth Trefonas said in an email she knew of one person targeted by the Feb. 7 operation who had an administrative warrant. She could not speak to the issue further, she said.
Anyone who might have been removed from the community would have gone to an ICE facility, Carr said.
If ICE had 17 warrants in the Feb. 7 operation, that number would be unusually high, according to Rosie Read, an immigration attorney and the founding director of the Wyoming Immigrant Advocacy Project, based in Jackson.
“If they really did come to execute 17 administrative warrants, that would have been pretty unheard of under the Biden administration,” Read said.
Read’s organization is typically on the receiving end of questions asking for resources after a raid, but so far, the only phone calls she has received have been to express what she said were misinformed opinions on the immigration system.
“My office has received these really angry, vulgar phone calls from a few people accusing us of helping rapists, murderers and pedophiles to evade arrest,” Read said.
If that was the case, ICE would have been in towns like Worland or Torrington, Wyoming, picking up convicted felons when their multi-decades long sentence was done at a state prison — not at a Jackson apartment complex.
Seeking individuals in town rather than through the jail system, marks a drastic shift from the Biden administration, which typically only sought individuals convicted of violent crimes and already serving jail time.
ICE’s Denver office, which serves Wyoming, has not responded to multiple requests for information, including who was sought or detained. Searching for answers at the state court for judicial warrants first requires names.
Unlike a judicial system, ICE’s database is not public so if administrative warrants were used, only ICE officials would know details.
Trefonas’ client was dealt an administrative warrant, she said in an email. Other than that, KHOL has not been able to determine if any other warrant type was used or how many.
Read said ICE typically uses administrative warrants and judicial warrants are less common.
Warrants signed by the Department of Homeland Security, are considered “administrative” and don’t allow officers to forcefully enter private spaces. A warrant signed by a judge, however, would allow entry to a private space.
Carr said ICE has not shared new information with him, either.
“I don’t anticipate getting any more [information] than what we already have,” Carr said on Feb. 26, “which is not much.”
This story has been updated to say Trefonas knows of one warrant. She cannot confirm who is the attorney on the case. — Eds.
