Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have been seen throughout Iowa this week following President Donald Trump’s promise to crack down on undocumented workers.

While Gov. Kim Reynolds directed Iowa law enforcement officials to “fully cooperate and assist” federal agencies in carrying out the deportations, Webster County officials say that may be difficult given that the county jail is already at maximum capacity.

“The Webster County Attorney’s Office has not received any notification from state or federal officials at this point,” said Webster County Attorney Darren Driscoll. “As immigration and legal residency status is a matter of federal, rather than state or local law, I do not believe it will be necessary for county attorneys to play a role. However, it is possible that county jail facilities could be used to hold individuals for federal authorities. In Webster County, that would be very difficult.”

Webster County’s jail, like many county jails in Iowa, has struggled with overcrowding and has needed to outsource housing of many inmates. In fact, Webster County currently has a wait list from the past five years of 1,200 individuals waiting to serve jail time to complete their imposed sentences but can not do so because of overcrowding.

“We are not staffed to commit several deputies to begin enforcing immigration laws,” said Webster County Sheriff Luke Fleener. “Also, we do have an agreement in place to house federal inmates if needed. However, as most people are aware, the Webster County Jail is always at capacity. We currently have 20 inmates housed out of county at a cost of $2,000 a day, and we would not have room for a federal detainee for immigration violations. Those individuals would have to be transported elsewhere by the arresting agency. This is one of the reasons that taxpayers were asked to consider funding the construction of a new jail.”

According to both Fleener and Driscoll, directives from the Governor’s Office regarding immigration enforcement have not been received at the county level, as of press time.

“We will continue to focus our efforts on reducing the crime rate, enforcing local and state laws, and working closely with the Fort Dodge Police Department and the Iowa State Patrol to make Webster County and Fort Dodge a safer community for our citizens,” said Fleener.