Federal agents hand-delivered letters to Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt and Cook County, Illinois, Sheriff Tom Dart in July 2026, warning that they could face criminal witness-tampering charges for declining to give immigration agents access to inmates sought for deportation. Witt says the threat means federal officials warned they could arrest her personally, but she is refusing to change how her jail operates.
A Federal Warning Aimed at Two Big-City Sheriffs
According to the Department of Homeland Security, in a statement reported by Newsmax, the letters were meant to pressure what the agency called “sanctuary politicians” into handing over dangerous criminal inmates for federal deportation. The warnings cite 18 U.S.C. § 1512, the federal witness-tampering statute, which carries penalties of up to 20 years in prison for using intimidation, threats, or corrupt persuasion to obstruct communications with federal law enforcement, according to the Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute. Per the 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS report, federal officials asserted that failing to hand over inmates sought by ICE could lead to those charges against the two county sheriffs, citing reporting from The New York Times.
Witt has pushed back hard against the warning. “I don't want to be arrested. But they know where I am. Come and get me,” she said, according to the same Newsmax report. She has said the threats will not cause her to abandon her legal responsibilities or disregard the Constitution, and that her focus remains on protecting all Hennepin County residents and keeping communities safe. Witt also posted a response on social media addressing the letters, according to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS.
Why Sheriffs Say Their Hands Are Tied by Law, Not Choice
Witt has said there is no legal basis for the witness-tampering claim because her office is simply following the law. Under Hennepin County Sheriff's Office policy, jail officials honor ICE custody requests only when accompanied by a judicial warrant signed by a judge, and they do not hold inmates or notify ICE based solely on administrative detainers signed by immigration agents, according to a February 2026 report from FOX 9. In Cook County, Sheriff Dart operates under similar constraints: the Illinois TRUST Act of 2017 and the Illinois Way Forward Act of 2021 bar Illinois law enforcement agencies from detaining people on civil ICE detainers or granting ICE nonpublic facility access without a federal criminal warrant, per Capitol News Illinois.
Legal experts told The New York Times that the threatened witness-tampering charges would likely be difficult to prosecute, since neither sheriff is accused of anything beyond following existing state and local policy. That view is bolstered by recent court outcomes: federal district judges in Minnesota and Illinois already dismissed lawsuits against Witt and Dart, ruling that the Constitution permits states and local jurisdictions to decline assisting with federal civil immigration enforcement, Newsmax reported. The Justice Department has appealed the Illinois ruling but had not appealed the Minnesota decision as of August 2026.
Cook County's Massive Jail Raises the Stakes
Dart's office oversees the Cook County Jail in Chicago, the largest single-site detention facility in the Midwest, holding thousands of individuals daily, according to Newsmax. That scale helps explain why federal officials targeted Cook County alongside Hennepin County: non-cooperation from a jail that size represents a major obstacle to federal deportation efforts. Both sheriffs now find themselves squeezed between state statutes that forbid warrantless civil detentions and a federal government demanding compliance anyway.
A Sheriff Already Under Financial and Political Pressure
The standoff lands amid an already strained relationship between Witt's office and federal immigration operations in the Twin Cities. Federal enforcement escalated sharply in early 2026 under Operation Metro Surge, which generated roughly $1.3 million in Hennepin County Sheriff's Office overtime costs in January 2026 alone, Hoodline reported, a cost that sparked a separate budget fight with county commissioners over oversight of the sheriff's spending.
Witt, who took office in January 2023 as the first Black female sheriff in Minnesota's history, is also gearing up for a reelection campaign, having announced her 2026 bid in November 2025. Her office employs roughly 900 staff across six operational bureaus, including a Detention Services Bureau created in 2024 specifically to oversee the Hennepin County Adult Detention Center, serving nearly 1.3 million county residents. That reorganization, along with the county's push for jail-population transparency through a public dashboard, has shaped how her department manages the very inmate-access disputes now drawing federal scrutiny.
For now, the story remains a developing one, with no charges filed against either sheriff and no indication that either office plans to change its inmate-access policies. Both Witt and Dart continue to insist they are complying with binding state and constitutional law, even as the threat of federal prosecution hangs over their departments.
