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As all eyes are on President Donald Trump this week after he laid out a series of immigration-related executive orders, Freeborn County Sheriff Ryan Shea said the Sheriff’s Office has not yet heard of any changes regarding the county’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement contract.

Freeborn County has one of only two detention centers in the state for housing detainees awaiting deportation trials, Shea said. The second is in Willmar in Kandiyohi County. Sherburne County also used to house ICE detainees, but has become a primary holding site for the federal U.S. Marshal.

Freeborn County’s contract with ICE has been in place since 2009 when Mark Harig served as sheriff.

Shea said the people the county houses for ICE come from federal court who are awaiting court hearings regarding their immigration status. Many of the hearings are handled via Zoom, while some are in-person, and county deputies transport them to and from St. Paul as needed.

Otherwise, the detainees typically stay in the jail as they await their due process, and then they are taken back up for the conclusion of their proceedings.

When the detainees come to Freeborn County, they are only being held for their immigration status, Shea said. If an individual has another crime they are being tried for, those have typically been tried first in the county where the crime was committed and then they are turned over to ICE.

Shea said he could not disclose the amount per day the county receives from the federal government to house an ICE detainee or the average number of ICE detainees the county has housed in recent months; however, he noted the county has budgeted to receive about $3 million in ICE revenue in 2025.

The Tribune submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency for the information but has not yet received a response.

Shea noted the jail is capable of housing 133 individuals in total with 40 employees. Of that number, there are usually about 30 to 35 local residents in the jail. The county also houses a few other inmates for other counties.

He said the jail used to have 38 employees, but was cut back to 32 during the COVID-19 pandemic because the numbers of inmates were low in both the local and ICE populations. In 2023 when many of the federal restrictions on COVID-19 mandates came off, the county started reaching its budgeted numbers for inmates and needed more staffing again.

Though it has been difficult in the jail for staffing, Freeborn County commissioners recently agreed to expand to 40 employees in 2025 when looking at projected ICE revenue.

He said there has also been the discussion about whether it makes more sense financially to house local people who are arrested in neighboring counties instead so the county can take on more ICE detainees, though no determinations have been made to that effect.

The county already does not house women, and female inmates are sent to neighboring counties. The area in the jail that had been originally set up for women was converted to house more males.

All inmates in the jail are classified by risk level, either low, medium or high risk. He noted that low- and medium-risk detainees can be mixed together, and medium- and high-risk detainees can be mixed together, but low- and high-risk detainees cannot be together.

The ICE detainees are mixed into the three risk levels with the other inmates based on factors including criminal history and current charges, Shea said. If an individual was being held only for his immigration status, that would be considered low-risk.

Shea reassured local residents that it is not the job of local law enforcement to go out looking for people who are in the country illegally — that is the job of ICE officers. However, he noted that if an individual is arrested locally for another crime and they have reason to believe the individual is in the country illegally, they will contact ICE to see if they want a hold on that person. This has been the practice for many years, he said.

“The people who aren’t committing crimes — they don’t have any reason to fear local law enforcement,” he said. “We’re not going to come pull them out of their jobs, out of their homes, something else.”