MoCo officials say DOJ is being a bully

Monterey County and the sheriff’s office are responding after the latest round of threats from the Department of Justice.

Last week, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered 23 jurisdictions to turn over documentations of their immigration policies or practices or they will lose a federal grant and face possible subpoena.

Monterey County and Watsonville got a similar request in November asking for documentations on local immigration laws, policies and practices. And the county said it responded.

But the DOJ said it remains concerned and asked for documents detailing how local law enforcement agencies communicate with the Department of Homeland Security.

The letter was addressed to Mary Adams, Monterey County board of supervisors chair at the time.

“I think the tone of the letter, as I read it, was attempting to sort of threaten us into spending a whole lot of valuable staff time and community time trying to come up with responses to something that we really have no need to respond to,” Adams said.

The question is whether Monterey County is in compliance with federal immigration law, specifically the code that orders local law enforcement agencies to share people’s immigration status at ICE agents’ request.

In a December letter to the DOJ, the sheriff’s office cited its order saying officers will share information if it’s either available to other law enforcement agencies or to the public.

This time around, the office plans to share the following: “What is somebody in jail for, what were they arrested for. It’s all public record. You could call the jail right now and ask if John Thornburg was in jail and they would tell you yes or no,” said Cmdr. John Thornburg with the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office.

County officials said the public shouldn’t be concerned.

“We are not turning criminals loose on the street nor are we allowing the government to bully us into making people who are here working and contributing to our community that they could be subject to unfair prosecution,” Adams said.

Both Monterey County and the sheriff’s office said although it’d be nice to get the grant, it’s not a lot of money.