MARSHALL — Lyon County is one of several southwest Minnesota counties that has been called an immigration “sanctuary county” by outside groups. But county officials say they don’t know how they got that label.

“No action has been taken on the county board level to declare the county a sanctuary,” Lyon County Sheriff Eric Wallen said.

Wallen said the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office already shares information with agencies like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But the Sheriff’s Office doesn’t have the authority to enforce federal immigration laws or detain people for ICE, he said.

This week, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported that a dozen Minnesota counties, including Lyon County, ended up on a list of jurisdictions that aren’t fully cooperative with ICE. Groups like the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that says it has a “low immigration” vision, and America First Legal, a nonprofit headed by former Trump advisor Stephen Miller, included the Minnesota counties on lists of “sanctuary counties” on their websites.

All this comes at a time when the Trump administration is emphasizing immigration enforcement. Last week, the Associated Press reported that the Justice Department ordered federal prosecutors to investigate state or local officials who impede immigration policies.

On its website, the Center for Immigration Studies listed Lyon County, along with Lincoln, Pipestone, Nobles, Cottonwood, Jackson, Watonwan and Kandiyohi Counties, on a map of “sanctuary” jurisdictions in Minnesota. The website linked to an ICE report from June 2024, listing jurisdictions that did not fully cooperate with releasing noncitizens into ICE custody, or sharing certain information with ICE officials.

“I’m not sure why they have labeled us the way they have,” Wallen said.

Wallen said the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office is willing to assist law enforcement partners like ICE, and the Sheriff’s Office and Lyon County jail have complied with requests for information. But the county jail can’t detain people solely on a request from ICE.

“Minnesota judges have ruled that that alone is not proper,” Wallen said. In order to hold someone at the county jail, they would need to have a judge’s warrant, or the person would need to be facing criminal charges under state law or local ordinance, he said.

Wallen said detaining people without a warrant or criminal charges could also expose the county to lawsuits.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota sued Nobles County over the practice of keeping jail inmates until they could be transferred to federal custody. In 2020, a judge ruled that the Nobles County Sheriff’s Office could not detain inmates after they were already eligible for release in state cases.

Wallen isn’t the only Lyon County official with questions about the “sanctuary county” label. Lyon County Administrator Loren Stomberg said he had also been contacted by an organization claiming the county was a “sanctuary jurisdiction.”

America First Legal’s website listed Lyon County on a map of “sanctuary strongholds,” together with phone and email information for people to contact county officials. In December, the organization sent Stomberg a letter. The six-page document said Lyon County had been “identified as a sanctuary jurisdiction that is violating federal law,” citing the same June 2024 ICE report linked to by the Center for Immigration studies.

The AFL letter went on to say, “Such lawlessness subjects you and your subordinates to significant risk of criminal and civil liability. Accordingly, we are sending this letter to put you on notice of this risk and insist that you comply with our nation’s laws.”

“We don’t know why we got sent that,” Stomberg said. Lyon County has never declared itself to be an immigration sanctuary, he said. “We don’t dabble in that.”

Stomberg also noted that America First Legal isn’t a government entity. “To my knowledge, a federal agency has not talked to us about anything,” he said.