By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
March 21, 2025
Claiming Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita appears to be playing on the “recent and alarming political popularity of anti-immigrant animus,” the St. Joseph County Police Department has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit that accuses the local law enforcement agency of violating the state’s sanctuary city statute.
The 15-page motion, filed March 11 in State of Indiana ex rel. Todd Rokita v. William Redman, St. Joseph County Sheriff and St. Joseph County Police Department, 71C01-2501-PL-000026, is seeking to end the lawsuit which alleges the SJCPD is not cooperating with officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This is the third sanctuary city lawsuit the attorney general’s office has filed against a municipality or local sheriff’s department since July 2024 and, like the others, specifically claims the SJCPD has not honored detainer requests from ICE.
The motion to dismiss argued that deputizing state agencies to enforce federal immigration laws would violate the U.S. Constitution. The motion, in particular, cited to the 2014 ruling in Galarza v. Szalczyk, where the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the 10th Amendment prohibited federal immigration officials from ordering state and local officials to hold suspected noncitizens who might be subject to removal.
Along with the constitutional concerns, the motion noted Rokita’s lawsuit appears to mirror similar attempts, notably in Virginia, Florida, New Hampshire and Texas, to enlist local police officers to help enforce federal immigration laws. While anti-immigrant sentiment seems to be driving the national trend, the motion said, it also argued that Indiana’s top lawyer should not be swayed by any potential political gain.
“It would strain credulity to imagine that these attempts are not associated with the recent and alarming political popularity of anti-immigrant animus,” the motion asserted. “But politics and political concerns do not trump the Tenth Amendment. The Attorney General has a duty to uphold the rule of law, not fashion it into a tool to do what is politically popular.”
Rokita filed a complaint against the SJCPD in St. Joseph County Circuit Court in January, while he was visiting South Bend to speak at a naturalization ceremony. Later that same day, Rokita held a news conference in South Bend’s County-City Building, announcing his office had taken legal action to compel Sheriff William Redman and his department to cooperate with federal immigration officials.
The complaint alleged the SJCPD violated Indiana’s sanctuary city statute, in part, by failing to honor nine detainer requests that ICE made between March and September 2024. The attorney general’s office accused the local law enforcement agency of “persistently failing” to give federal agencies adequate notice prior to releasing noncitizens from custody.
However, the SCJPD’s motion countered Rokita “has failed to plead facts that will allow him to litigate his misplaced desire.” The motion asserted that, contrary to the attorney general’s accusations, the county policy department does not have any policies or practices restricting cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Moreover, the motion questioned Rokita’s assertions that he, personally, had contact with ICE and received verification the sheriff was not cooperating.
“In other words, the Attorney General has not pleaded any operative facts to support his vague and conclusory accusations,” the motion stated. “Those accusations seem to be based on little more than guesswork.”
During the 2024 session of the Indiana General Assembly, lawmakers amended the sanctuary city statute to give the attorney general’s office the ability to enforce the law. The provision stating “a person lawfully domiciled in Indiana may bring an action to compel” was changed, so that if the state’s top lawyer determines “probable cause exists” that a governmental body or postsecondary education institution has violated the prohibition against sanctuary cities, then “the attorney general shall bring an action to compel.”
Before the amended law took effect, Rokita threatened legal action and got the city of Gary to rescind its welcoming ordinance and the West Lafayette Police Department to change its policy for handling ICE detainers. Also, he pushed the city of East Chicago to scrap its welcoming ordinance by filing a lawsuit that was later dropped.
In addition, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office was hit with a lawsuit by the attorney general, but the law enforcement agency is fighting back. As part of its motion to dismiss the amended complaint, the sheriff’s office examined the sanctuary city law and argued Rokita did not identify any conflict between the sheriff’s policy for “treat(ing) all individuals fairly and equally, during law enforcement encounters, regardless of their immigration or citizenship status” and the state statute.
“The Amended Complaint asserts that the Sheriff’s policy violates (Indiana Code 5-2-18.2-3) because Section 3 bans policies that restrict ‘communicating or cooperating with federal officials,’ but the context and language of the provision make clear that the word ‘cooperation’ is used in the narrow sense,” the Monroe County sheriff’s motion said. “Given the other verbs used in Section 3, that term is best understood as a bar on policies that restrict the sharing of relevant information, not policies that restrict the gathering of information not in the Sheriff’s possession.”
In its motion to dismiss, the SJCPD also looked at the statute and asserted the amended provision does not overcome the issue of standing. The motion cited to Indiana judicial precedent, which has established that the “constitutionally irreducible minimum requirement” for standing is an “allegation of injury.” Despite the new language, the motion argued, the General Assembly cannot legislate around standing.
“The Attorney General’s complaint does not identify any injury to either him or to the State,” the motion to dismiss asserted. “It cannot. There isn’t one.”
The trial court has given the attorney general until April 14 to file a response to SJCPD’s motion to dismiss.
Dwight Adams, an editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.
