Before anything else, I want to share a few pictures that I took this morning. The first one is the sunrise that I saw through my bedroom window when I woke up. The picture was taken through the window, so it is not great and certainly did not capture the true beauty of the sky, but it is adequate. I especially love to see the clouds that appear like distant mountains. The first time I saw that phenomenon after moving here, I wondered if I had been transported to another region of the country while sleeping.
Then I got a better shot of the morning clouds while I was walking with my dog. Not only was it lighter outside, I was more awake and remembered to shut the flash off on my phone camera.
And when we returned, I saw this frog on my back porch. Brought to mind the song wriiten by Bob Dylan and covered by so many artists. “Froggie went a courtin’ he did ride, Mhmmm, Mhmmm.” For a full version of the lyrics and a link to the iconic Burl Ives singing it, click HERE. It is now two hours later, and I still can’t get the song out of my head. LOL
This morning I listened to a podcast episode on The Daily that covered the problem that sheriffs across the country face when asked by ICE to hold an undocumented criminal. If the sheriff holds the undocumented person too long, that violates the Constitution, but the alternative is going against the White House. According to New York Times correspondent Caitlin Dickerson, who covers immigration for the newspaper, this is a tight spot the sheriffs have been in, even before the tougher immigration policies of the current president.
She cites a sheriff in Florida who spent hours and hours scouring legal textbooks to find a way to not have to release a violent criminal, which happens too often, just because of the difference between wording that says a person cannot be detained after they have posted bail or finished their jail term.
ICE sends a request called a Detainer to sheriffs, which the sheriff cannot honor because of the protection of the Constitution. To get around that, this Florida sheriff came up with the wordage that would work. Using a contract that sheriff department have with the U.S. Marshal service that a sheriff could “house” a federal inmate.
Now he is working with ICE and Homeland Security to get the wordage of the requests to hold illegal immigrants changed so it would solve the problem that sheriff’s face.
If you would like to know more about this and understand the difference between criminal law and civil law as it applies to illegal immigration and how it created this problem for law enforcement, I encourage you to go listen to the whole podcast. It explained a lot that I did not know, and I think it is important that we are all informed about the issue.
That’s all for me for today. I hope your Monday is great and the opening of a productive week.