3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2018
ICE tried to share info with Pacific County sheriff
Johnson still
pressing feds
on detainees
By AMY NILE
Chinook Observer
SOUTH BEND, Wash.
— Sheriff Scott Johnson has
been clamoring to get infor-
mation about immigrants
being shucked out of Pacific
County for almost a year.
However, U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement
officers were calling his office
throughout 2017 to report at
least some details the sheriff
said he wasn’t getting about
their work in the area.
ICE shared information
with local law enforcement on
at least 42 days between late
December 2016 and late Sep-
tember, county dispatch reports
and call recordings show.
Johnson had said his office
hadn’t heard from the agency
since President Donald Trump
ordered authorities to get rid
of anyone living in the country
illegally early last year.
Communications between
the sheriff and ICE are a
hot-button issue for oppo-
nents of Trump administra-
tion deportation policies,
while other county residents
have voiced support for stricter
enforcement of immigration
laws. In order to determine
the extent of contacts
that or something? But
between local and fed-
he’s consistently say-
eral authorities, doc-
ing we’re not commu-
uments and record-
nicating with you guys
ings were obtained
and we really try to do
via public records and
our best with that.”
Freedom of Informa-
Miller told the
Scott
tion Act requests.
Observer
he couldn’t
Johnson
While this infor-
comment and referred
mation shows ICE
questions to the ICE
conveys basic facts about its press office. Lori Haley, an
activities to sheriff’s office ICE spokesperson, confirmed
employees, it does not suggest officers usually notify local
the sheriff’s office aids ICE in dispatch when they’re around.
finding or detaining undocu-
Miller’s comment prompted
mented immigrants.
Johnson to change the way his
office handles information
ICE talked to dispatch from ICE, emails show. Dis-
Federal officers have been patchers started calling a super-
calling county dispatch to pro- visor immediately after hearing
vide their whereabouts, what from ICE, but the policy was
type of work they plan to do dropped after a few months.
and other details that might
Supervisors’ sleep was
help sheriff’s deputies and city being interrupted for routine
police identify them.
calls, and paying them over-
During one such call in time for alerts that weren’t
April, officer Lonnie Miller urgent ate up county money.
Dispatchers are now sup-
said ICE was headed to Nah-
cotta to do surveillance and posed to log the information in
possibly make an arrest.
one place and text a supervisor.
“I’ve got another real quick
The two ICE officers who’ve
question for you guys,” Miller been working in the county also
told the dispatcher. “The sher- usually follow up with the sher-
iff’s been doing a number iff’s office after they leave an
of town halls out here and area, records show. The calls
he’s consistently saying we often include more details about
don’t notify you guys. I don’t their work, such as the number
know if it’s like a disconnect, of immigrants they’re hauling
because it’s part of our pol- away in handcuffs.
icy to call you guys every time
During the first nine months
we’re out here.”
of 2017, officers reported at
“So,” he continued, “I don’t least 20 arrests in the county.
know if he’s just not aware of When dispatchers asked, they
At the time, Johnson sug-
gested he’d pressed ICE to
crack the silence with a letter he
sent to the agency twice, once
in April and again in August.
“The power of the pen,” he
wrote in an August email.
Johnson also met with
Miller and another officer and
later with the assistant field
directors from ICE’s Seattle
and Portland offices.
At a meeting in September,
they agreed to let the sheriff’s
office know when ICE would
be in the area, when officers left
and whether arrests were made.
Corey Heaton, the Portland
field director for ICE, wrote
a letter to Johnson in October
that summarized ICE’s com-
mitment to providing basically
the same information dispatch
was already getting.
A few days after making the
agreement, Johnson told the
Observer, federal agents came
into his office in South Bend
without warning to arrest a man
at the front counter.
Records show dispatch was
notified just a couple of min-
utes before officers arrived.
They also advised the sher-
iff’s office they were working
nearby earlier that day.
During an interview in Jan-
uary, Johnson said dispatch
takes “thousands and thou-
sands of calls” and he’s gener-
ally not involved. He trusts his
staff to convey information to
him as needed.
gave the names of the immi-
grants they’d picked up.
Based on surveillance spots
ICE reported to the county
during the first half of 2017,
officers focused heavily on
Nahcotta and Ocean Park,
often picking people up near
the Port of Peninsula or outside
Okie’s Thriftway Market. They
also frequently made arrests in
Long Beach and Seaview and
occasionally nabbed immi-
grants in Chinook.
In August, Miller emailed
Johnson to let him know fed-
eral enforcement would be
expanding to the Raymond
and South Bend area.
The officer offered to text
the sheriff when ICE was work-
ing, but Johnson told him to
keep calling dispatch instead.
Miller also requested a meet-
ing to discuss an August news-
paper report in which Johnson
said federal authorities weren’t
sharing information with local
law enforcement.
All versus any
Still, Johnson continued
to tell the public and the press
that ICE did not start pro-
viding information until late
September.
“This was the first time
ever (I think) that ICE noti-
fied us,” Johnson wrote in a
Sept. 25 email to the Observer.
“They provided few, if any,
details, pretty much a ‘one in
custody.’”
When he said his office
wasn’t getting any information
from ICE, he meant he wasn’t
— and still isn’t — getting all
of it, Johnson explained.
“I’ve never tried to mislead
anyone,” the sheriff said. “I’ve
tried to be totally transparent on
this issue.”
Information still lacking
The sheriff said he wants
the name and birthdate for each
immigrant who’s taken from
the county. That would allow
him to check their backgrounds
to see if ICE is arresting the
criminals federal officials
promised to deport, or if the
agency is taking people who
have overstayed a travel visa
or entered the country without
permission.
Johnson said he also needs
to know who’s being taken so
he can confirm whether some-
one has been arrested or if
they’re missing when neigh-
bors call with concerns.
Federal agents have recently
started to include the number
of arrests along with the gen-
der and age of each person they
take to the Northwest Deten-
tion Center in Tacoma, January
dispatch records show.
“We believe they’re con-
tinuing to provide that informa-
tion every time they’re here,”
Johnson said. “It’s a step in the
right direction to get those first
few things. But it’s still an awk-
ward situation for us.”
Two women who died while clam digging identified Meat Loaf
Dinner
Clatsop Post 12
Chinook Observer
LONG BEACH, Wash.
— The two women who died
while digging for clams on
Washington state beaches on
Friday have been identified.
Jerilynn Kay Reinke, 70,
and Sharon Kay Leseman, 61,
appear to have drowned under
strikingly similar circum-
stances. The tragedies occurred
within about an hour of low
tide during an authorized clam
dig. Both victims’ bodies were
recovered over the weekend.
Although an early press
release from the Pacific County
Sheriff’s Office said the calls
came in within four minutes of
one another, dispatchers later
clarified that the calls actually
came in about one hour apart.
Ocean Park resident Henry
Reinke called 911 to report
his wife’s disappearance
just before 9 p.m. on Friday
night, Chief Criminal Dep-
uty Pat Matlock of the Pacific
County Sheriff’s Office said.
The Reinkes were digging for
clams near Leadbetter Point,
roughly 7 miles north of the
Oysterville beach approach.
Reinke said his wife fin-
ished digging for clams around
8 p.m., and decided to go
back to their vehicle. He saw
her walk toward the vehicle,
which was parked east of the
shoreline. When he got back to
the vehicle about five minutes
later, his wife wasn’t there.
Dispatchers learned of
Leseman’s
disappearance
from the beach in North Cove
when her husband, Edward
Leseman, called 911 around
10 p.m. At the scene, the Gray-
land resident told a deputy his
wife finished clamming near
Warrenton Cannery Road
around 6:45 p.m.
Like Reinke, she planned
to go back to their vehicle to
wait. She gave her lantern
to her husband and headed
toward their vehicle while he
finished clamming. When he
got back, she wasn’t there. He
went to their home to see if she
had gotten a ride from some-
one else, then returned to the
beach to search for her. He
called 911 about an hour after
she went missing.
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February 9 th
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6PM
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Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
(Change from lasagna dinner)
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191 S. M AIN A VE .
W ARRENTON
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