Tucson police Chief Chris Magnus has also said the police department does not have the resources for immigration enforcement duties. He said officers will follow all state and federal laws dealing with immigration, including the state’s SB 1070.

The sheriff’s department already acknowledges ICE detainers and contacts federal law enforcement when “in the regular course of our duties, we develop a reasonable belief a person might be in this country without documentation,” Napier said.

With several thousand Border Patrol employees in Tucson who are able to respond quickly to requests for support, there’s no need for sheriff employees to be cross-certified as immigration agents, Napier said.

State law requires the department verifies the immigration status of Pima County jail inmates prior to their release and a “relatively small portion” of inmates crosschecked with ICE result in a detention request, Napier said.

“An ICE detainer ... does not provide a legal basis for detaining a person,” Napier said. “When we no longer have a legal basis to hold an inmate and are aware of an ICE detainer, we notify ICE that we are beginning out-processing from the inmate.”