The Phelps County Jail will no longer take in new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees, effective Sept. 1. The jail will continue to hold detainees brought in before then until they are transferred to another facility.
“It’s Sheriff Mike Kirn’s decision, and we support it,” said Joey Auxier, presiding commissioner of the Phelps County Commission. “He runs the jail, and he does a good job. It’s his call.”
The federal government reimburses jails $85 a night to house detainees, including those brought in by U.S. marshals or military police. But people arrested by ICE require more labor due to transportation requirements and paperwork. The reimbursement amount did not cover the Phelps County Jail's costs.
Kirn did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The jail in Rolla has been housing people arrested by ICE since March. More than 350 people have been held at the jail since then, some for just one night and some for months.
The housing of ICE detainees led to a group of activists to create an organization called Abide in Love that helps Phelps County detainees by providing them money to call and text their families as well as food, clothes and hygiene items.
Abide in Love plans to continue to support ICE detainees in the Phelps County Jail as long as they are housed there. Group members said they are concerned about what will happen to people arrested by ICE who would have gone to Rolla.
“We don’t know where those detainees will go and what their experience will be like,” said Lucy Behrendt, the group’s secretary. “We felt our sheriff did care that [ICE detainees] were treated well and was making efforts to make their experience as humane as he could.”
Abide in Love’s mission is to support immigrants in Phelps County, and Behrendt said the group's members will continue to do that in new ways in the future.
They will also continue to work with activists in other communities where ICE is detaining people to help them set up affiliate groups. They are working to set up an Abide in Love group in Ste. Genevieve.
This story has been updated with Abide in Love’s plans.
