WASHINGTON — Jilmar Ramos-Gomez had been out of ICE custody four months.
A Marine. A combat veteran. A U.S. citizen born in Michigan, held three days for possible deportation before federal authorities figured out what his passport already said. Kent County changed its jail policy in January 2019 to make sure it didn’t happen again: no more holds for ICE without a warrant signed by a judge.
That May, a state senator from Potterville named Tom Barrett moved to make counties pay for exactly that kind of decision.
Barrett, now the freshman Republican congressman from Michigan’s 7th District, chaired the Michigan Senate’s corrections budget subcommittee in 2019. Under his gavel, the panel advanced budget language withholding jail reimbursement funding from any county that limited communication or cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Democrats objected. So did the Michigan Department of Corrections.
Barrett defended it as routine.
“I think this is good to require, good to maintain…