Arguments made in court over lawsuit filed against St. Joe County sheriff over immigration

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) - St. Joseph County Sheriff William Redman is one of two in Indiana being sued for failing to assist federal immigration efforts.

On Wednesday, two hours of court time was set aside for legal arguments for, and against, his motion to have the case dismissed.

“I wouldn’t characterize what Sheriff Redman has done as fighting or arguing. Sheriff Redman was the one sued by the attorney general,” said attorney Andrew B. Jones. “We have two bases for disputing the lawsuit. The first is the fact that the attorney general, the complaint itself is legally deficient, but behind the legal deficiency, it’s factually deficient because our sheriff, of course, always follows all state federal and local laws.”

Blake Lanning took to the podium for the Indiana Attorney General’s office.

“The statute we’re enforcing is not a mandate that in all cases you have to comply with detainer requests. In all cases you have to cooperate, but it does not allow you to do the reverse and have a categorical policy that says we never cooperate,” Lanning explained. “And that is exactly what we allege Sheriff Redman is doing, right? If you have nine detainers in six months and your record is oh for nine, that suggests pretty strongly and gives rise to the inference which is what we were arguing today that you have policy in place that categorically prohibits officers from cooperating with ICE.”

The judge took the matter under advisement and hopes to have a ruling by Aug. 18.