In an article posted this morning, the Sentinel shared the results of a recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) list of so-called “sanctuary” counties–those that do not cooperate with its efforts to detain certain illegal aliens.
Finney County, home of Garden City, has protested that label vigorously. As reported in a February 10 article in the Garden City Telegram, Sheriff Kevin Bascue and County Administrator Randy Partington successfully lobbied the non-profit Center for Immigration Studies to have Finney County removed from its list of sanctuary territories.
County and city leaders objected almost as strongly to the revised CIS listing “Removed from List.” Said City Administrator Matt Allen, “It makes it look like there was something that was done. It still looks like at one point in time there was some policy that was in contrast to federal law.” Allen insists that that no such policy was ever in place.
Allen also told the Telegram that Finney County was “in good standing with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).” This he verified through Garden City’s congressional delegation. What complicates this issue is the fact ICE placed Finney County on its uncooperative list after the Telegram article appeared. The ICE document covers the state of affairs ending on February 10, 2017, the same day as the Telegram article. It had to have been published some time after that.
According to local officials, the city and county have been fighting for years to get Finney County’s good name restored. It appears that they will have to fight some more.
