AG Knudsen jumps into Gallatin County dispute on immigration jail holds

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen this week weighed in on questions about expanding Gallatin County’s assistance to federal immigration authorities, calling legal guidance from the local county attorney on the matter “flawed” in part because it runs against President Donald Trump’s agenda.

The discussion about dedicating 10 jail beds for federal immigration detainees has already dissolved in Gallatin County, but Knudsen, a Republican, has been an ardent supporter of Trump’s politics since taking office in 2021. In a letter dated May 21, he accused Gallatin County Attorney Audrey Cromwell of political opposition to federal immigration enforcement, rather than advising county officials based on legal analysis.

“The American people, however, spoke loudly and clearly in November 2024,” Knudsen said in a press release on Thursday. “They sent Donald Trump back to the White House to secure our border, remove dangerous criminals and drugs from our streets, and end sanctuary jurisdictions. Montanans were likewise clear that they wanted their state and federal officials to support President Trump’s agenda, not undermine it.”

Cromwell said Thursday she stands by her original legal opinion, which asserted that entangling Gallatin County in the Trump administration’s loose application of due process rights could embroil the county in costly legal affairs.

In the April 24 guidance to the commission, Cromwell noted that Gallatin County already participates in the 287(g) program, which allows trained local law enforcement officers to perform certain functions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. Gallatin and Flathead counties, the only two in Montana participating, both joined the program in 2024.

Cromwell was advising local officials on a proposal from the Gallatin County Sheriff Dan Springer to enter an agreement with federal authorities to detain non-local undocumented immigrants at the county jail. The arrangement would have allotted 10 jail beds at a $135-per-day rate. In a public statement after issuing the opinion, Cromwell said the proposal could expose the county “to significant legal liability and compromises the County’s ability to serve its own community members.”

On May 9, a week after the legal opinion was issued, Cromwell’s office notified the public that the county commission had directed her to halt any further work on the proposal, and local news outlets reported the commission had backed off the idea.

On Thursday, Cromwell issued a statement in response to Knudsen’s letter.

“Given constitutional concerns regarding due process, significant legal liability, and added strain on overburdened county resources, I stand by my legal opinion which advises the commission against entering into additional agreement with ICE to detain non-local undocumented immigrants in the Gallatin County Detention Center,” Cromwell said in an emailed statement. “As Gallatin County Attorney, I uphold the law.”

In its own statement on Thursday, the Gallatin County commission expressed support for both Cromwell and Springer, but did not indicate whether Knudsen’s letter would reopen discussions on the sheriff’s proposal.

In February, Knudsen’s office announced it had signed the 287(g) agreement for the Montana Highway Patrol and Division of Criminal Investigation to conduct some federal immigration enforcement duties, the same local enforcement cooperation plan Gallatin and Flathead counties joined, since Trump’s re-election to office.

That month, ICE agents and Gallatin County authorities had made six local arrests of suspected members of Tren De Aragua, the Venezuelan criminal drug organization that’s become the chief target of Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts.

Springer told MTN news in Bozeman the local drug task force coordinated with federal law enforcement had identified more gang members and were working to deport them.

“It’s a public safety concern that those people are here. We recognize that,” Springer told KBZK reporter Cassidy Powers. “We are out there fighting them every single day to make sure you can stay safe.”

Law enforcement’s rush to take Venezuelans into custody has, at times, presented its own flaws. Last month, a Venezuelan man legally in Montana was picked up in a traffic stop and shuttled to an ICE facility in Tacoma, Wash., only to be released days later without further explanation. And U.S. Border Patrol in Havre quickly posted to social media they had arrested three members of Tren De Aragua in March, although an attorney for one of the men in custody said the agency had no evidence of any gang affiliation.

The Gallatin County sheriff’s proposal to dedicate 10 beds for ICE arrests is not the only suggestion to emerge and, ultimately, fizzle in Montana since Trump resumed the presidency. In Billings, the Yellowstone County Commission offered in January use of the MetraPark, owned by the county and one of the largest event centers in the state, to detain immigrants charged with crimes. Amid a wave of local protests, the facility’s general manager said the MetraPark would not be used as a jail “whatsoever.”

Knudsen was in Yuma, Arizona, this week to pledge further support of Trump and survey the unused materials left there when work on Trump’s border fence along the boundary with Mexico wound down in 2020 after the election of former President Joe Biden. Barnard Construction, a Bozeman company that secured multiple contracts to build Trump’s signature southern border wall during his first term, worked on a 32-mile stretch of fence there.

In his letter to the Gallatin County commission on Wednesday, Knudsen likened Cromwell’s guidance to an endorsement of “open border” policies.

“My office fought back against these destructive policies for four long years, and I refuse to stand by as feckless left-wing prosecutors attempt to subvert the will of the people and put dangerous criminals back on the streets,” he wrote. “... It is critical that the commission ignore Ms. Cromwell’s flawed ‘opinion’ and work in partnership with ICE to detain dangerous criminals here in our country illegally.”