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ICE won’t renew contract to hold suspects in Kent County Jail

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Federal immigration enforcement will no longer hold suspects in the Kent County jail after September.

Kent County stopped honoring so called “detainer requests” from Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier this year.

The requests are to hold an inmate past when they’re scheduled to be released, if the person is suspected of being undocumented.

Kent County stopped complying after a U.S. citizen was detained by ICE using a detainer request.

But there are other ways for ICE to pick up suspects, and it still has a contract with the Kent County jail to hold them. 

Now, after a protest at the jail over the weekend, the Kent County sheriff says that contract will be allowed to expire at the end of September.

Dustin Dwyer reports enterprise and long-form stories from Michigan Public's West Michigan bureau.