Pelle in April joined several other Colorado sheriffs in announcing he would no longer honor the ICE requests. The detainers request that sheriffs hold a suspected undocumented immigrant for up to 48 hours beyond their normal release time. Add in weekends and holidays, and 48 hours can stretch to nearly a week, says Mark Silverstein of the Colorado ACLU. Boulder County saw about 150 ICE detainer requests in 2013, Pelle said, out of 10,000 bookings.
"Even 48 hours is a very long time to someone who should be free," Silverstein said. "The government has to have adequate grounds to deprive someone of their liberty. Even for a few minutes, it needs to be justified."