Sheriff talks immigration, fentanyl over coffee

COEUR d’ALENE — Dozens of community members gathered Wednesday morning to chat over coffee about issues affecting Kootenai County with Sheriff Bob Norris and members of his administration.

The meetup at Bakery by the Lake in downtown Coeur d’Alene was the latest in a series organized by the sheriff’s office, with coffee events taking place at locations throughout the county. The events are meant to give residents a chance to speak informally with local law enforcement officials about matters that are important to them.

Of the hundreds of community members surveyed at Norris’ town halls and coffee chats, he said the majority have reported “illegal immigration” in Kootenai County as their top concern, above other matters like crime, traffic and gun rights.

Bret Baker, a Post Falls resident who moved to North Idaho five years ago, is among those who see illegal immigration as the most pressing concern in Kootenai County.

“I haven’t seen it personally but I think it could become a problem,” he said.

But Norris indicated Kootenai County residents' concerns about illegal immigration are not proportionate to the activity seen by his agency.

Very few people are jailed in Kootenai County due to their immigration status — perhaps two or three in a normal month.

In fact, Norris said, many of the people who are booked into jail on “border patrol hold” in Kootenai County were not contacted by law enforcement and arrested in this county or even in Idaho. Rather, they’re detained by federal authorities in Washington and temporarily handed off to the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office.

“Border Patrol came to me about a year ago,” Norris said. “They asked if we would house or detain some of their prisoners before they’re deported.”

These inmates are typically transported from Washington and held in the Kootenai County jail for a day or so before they’re transferred to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, a privately-run immigration prison operated on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Passed in 2019, the Keep Washington Working Act prohibits state and local law enforcement officials in Washington from detaining or arresting someone solely to determine their immigration status or based solely on a civil immigration warrant, detainer or hold request.

Norris said Idaho’s rules are similar. Deputies cannot detain someone solely because they think the person may have entered the country illegally.

The sheriff said he wants community members to understand that all people in the U.S. have the same rights and protections, regardless of immigration status.

“Once they touch soil here in the U.S., they have all the rights of a U.S. citizen,” Norris said.

The people jailed in Kootenai County because of their immigration status typically aren’t accused of crimes.

“We haven’t seen the criminal element of illegal immigration,” Norris said.

Still, many community members express concern and anxiety about immigration. 

“I think residents are seeing people in the community who speak a different language,” Norris said.

He recalled a recent gun show where multiple people pointed out attendees who spoke Russian, asking if they were “illegal immigrants” and if Norris could do something about them in his capacity as sheriff.

The answer was no. There was no reason to believe the individuals had committed any crimes or even that they were immigrants.

Norris said he believes local concerns about immigration can be exacerbated by national media reports and social media content about immigration in other parts of the country.

Other attendees asked Norris about the impact of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid more potent than morphine or heroin, on communities in North Idaho.

Norris has spoken in favor of mandatory minimum sentences for people convicted of trafficking fentanyl. One such bill is heading to the floor of the Idaho House of Representatives for a vote.

In the past, Norris said, law enforcement seizing a pound of methamphetamine or cocaine as part of a normal traffic stop, as opposed to a dedicated drug trafficking investigation, was considered a lucky occurrence. Now he said deputies come across suspects in possession of hundreds or thousands of fentanyl pills.

Norris said the increasing frequency of these types of stops is troubling.

“If we were seeing that much on a straight traffic stop with no nexus to a drug investigation, how much is getting through?” he said.