Working behind the scenes, the head of the country’s immigration enforcement agency has offered to pay the costs of holding suspected illegal immigrants who are arrested for other crimes in Cook County, part of an effort to get county officials to reconsider their refusal to cooperate with federal detention requests. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton has harshly criticized a Cook County ordinance that orders the sheriff’s office to ignore ICE detainers and release illegal immigrants who have been jailed on other charges after they’ve posted bail. County officials have said the measure is partly related to the costs of keeping suspected illegal immigrants locked up.
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