Sheriff Greg Zyburt, Marquette County

MARQUETTE — The past few Marquette County Board of Commissioners meetings have included lengthy public comments sections wherein residents have expressed concern about federal law enforcement and have requested that the commissioners draft a resolution addressing those concerns.

At Tuesday night’s commission meeting, Chairperson Joseph DeRocha responded to these public comments, stating that “we have constraints. We cannot create ordinances that don’t run with state law and federal law. They simply have to be in lockstep with the state; they can’t go against that. I believe we always need to stay in our lane here at the county commission. This is not a place to convene in this setting and I don’t believe we have an issue (with federal law enforcement) in Marquette County,”

“I get the concern for these issues,” continued DeRocha. “I totally respect your viewpoint, but we have a county to run and we need to stay in our lane.”

DeRocha made this privileged comment during the commission meeting after several community members again made public comments requesting an ICE-related resolution, comments which took up over half an hour of the meeting between both public comment periods.

“We’re going to work collectively with all agencies,” said DeRocha. “I know that that may not be what you want to hear tonight, but … we need to think about public safety, we need to think about our constitution and what authority this board actually has in its legislative limits.”

In another privileged comment, County Sheriff Greg Zyburt stated that “we have not entered nor do I plan on going into any 287 with the US Immigration Customs Enforcement. I see they’re throwing all sorts of things at agencies like cars, money, and just little treats to join them and be sworn in as federal officers. We are not going to do that. As sheriff, I can tell you I’m not going to do that. The sheriff’s office remains committed to this constitutional balance and I call upon all other government agencies to remain within their respective branches and respect the boundaries of their specific authority.”

Zyburt was referring to section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which “(authorizes) U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to delegate state and local law enforcement officers the authority to perform specified immigration officer functions under ICE’s direction and oversight,” according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement website.

Several members of the public and members of the county commission responded to the privileged comments made by DeRocha and Zyburt during the meeting.

“The main reason I am here — is that our federal representative — we know where he stands, and we are getting no responses from that individual on these issues,” said Jeff Choidi in a public comment. “I don’t think these actions are ‘out of our lane’ by any stretch of the imagination. You’re our most immediate form of representation for the constituents in Marquette County and we would like to hear where you stand on these issues as elected officials.”

In his comment, Commissioner Karl Numinen spoke directly to DeRocha, saying “Mr. Chairman, in addition to our legislative oversight duties and our budget management duties, which obviously we have and are statutorily bound to do, we also serve as a sounding board for the people that we represent and when we hear their genuine pleas and heartfelt concerns we should amplify those voices, not squelch them.”

Numinen also proposed an agenda item be added to the next scheduled meeting to discuss a resolution he wrote which would address the topics of law enforcement identification, use of recording equipment, and strict use of force policy.

“I welcome input from all points of view, from either side of this issue, and I hope we can take this up as a county board in our next meeting,” said Numinen.

The next Marquette County Board of Commissioners meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. March 17 in the Henry A. Skewis Courthouse Annex.

Annie Lippert can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is alippert@miningjournal.net.