Local law enforcement officers charged with enforcing Alabama’s new immigration law say they are meeting resistance if not outright refusal on the part of federal immigration officials to assume custody of illegal immigrants.

Sheffield Police Chief Greg Ray said officials with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, refused to pick up an undocumented immigrant when contacted by one of his officers.

“(Law enforcement) are being pounded to enforce this new immigration law and when we try, we get stonewalled,” Ray said.

Ray said one of his officers stopped a man for failing to stop at a traffic signal Thursday afternoon, the day his department completed a training session on the state’s new immigration law that went into effect in 2011.

“It turned out the man didn’t have a valid Alabama driver’s license,” Ray said. “He was Hispanic and didn’t have proper identification documentation, plus he admitted he was in the country illegally.”

Ray said his department contacted federal immigration officials as they have been instructed to do and were told federal officials need more information.

Local officers were then instructed to call an ICE agent in Huntsville.

Ray said someone in Gadsden who identified themselves as a transport agent for ICE called the arresting officer and asked if the man had a major felony charge.

Ray said when told the charges were traffic citations, the transportation agency’s response was, “We have plenty as it is” and that they were not coming to collect the man.

“We can only hold him for 48 hours on the citations,” Ray said. “Our dilemma is what to do with this man after that,” Ray said. “The law says pick them up if they are undocumented. We followed the law, part by part, and ICE says they won’t come and get them. It’s really frustrating.”

Katheryn Kennedy, public information officer with the Alabama Department of Homeland Security, the agency that helped sponsor the training for law enforcement, said “to our knowledge this is the first incident of this nature that we have been made aware of.”

She said enforcing the state’s immigration law “has been placed with local law enforcement.”

Bobby Timmons, executive director of the Alabama Sheriff’s Association, said he has heard many stories similar to Ray’s from sheriffs across the state.

“Unless it’s a felony arrest, (ICE) is not picking them up,” Timmons said.

He said in one case in Clay County, two women were detained once it was discovered they were in the country illegally. Federal immigration agents picked up one and left the other because her charge was not a felony, he said.

Portions of the immigration law are being challenged and the law has been appealed to the U.S. Federal Court 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. It also is expected to be discussed in the upcoming session of the Alabama Legislature.

“Nothing is going to change until there is a ruling by the 11th Circuit Court,” Timmons said. “I’ve told my sheriffs, if they pick up an undocumented alien and ICE will not come after them, after 48 hours, turn them loose.” He said he also instructed sheriff’s officers to document incidents when ICE agents refuse to collect an undocumented immigrant.

Russellville Police Chief Chris Hargett said he ran into the same situation as Ray and understands the frustration.

“We were told by ICE, unless the undocumented alien is convicted of a felony, is a gang member or has been deported prior, they will not pick them up,” Hargett said. “(ICE) says they don’t have the manpower. If they tell us they are not coming after them, we turn them loose.

“I feel like our hands are tied. We’re enforcing this law, but no one else is helping us. The state and federal government are not trying to work something out to help us.”

Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville, said the law is another example of an unfunded mandate.

“It’s a Republican unfunded mandate,” Bedford said. “(The Alabama Republicans) mandated the city, county and state to pick these people up, but what do they do when the federal government doesn’t step in?”

Bedford said law enforcement agencies are caught in the middle.

“I voted for it, but I’m man enough to say it was a mistake — it’s a bad law and we need to redo it,” Bedford said. “I am for a tough but fair immigration policy that applies equally to everyone. This is not it.”

Bedford said he has met with many business leaders and people in the agriculture community regarding to the law.

“They want this law gone, and it needs to be gone,” he said. “It’s a fiasco. It’s a symbol of racism that I thought we shed decades ago.”

He said state Republicans want to “tweak” the law during the upcoming session.

“I’m sure they will. I think they will tweak it and water it down,” Bedford said. “What needs to happen is for Congress and the president to step in and seal the borders and make it easier for people, who meet the qualifications, to become citizens.”

In the meantime, law enforcement agencies are caught trying to decide what to do.

“We’ve got until about 2 p.m. (today) to decide something,” about the man they detained, Ray said. “I’m going to do the right thing and unless we hear something from ICE, we are going to let him sign his traffic citations and be released to come to court.

“Law enforcement shouldn’t be caught in the middle when all we’re trying to do it enforce the laws we are told to, to the best of our ability.

“That’s what makes it so frustrating. We’re just trying to do our job, and we can’t get the guidance we need.”

Tom Smith can be reached at 256-740-5757 or tom.smith@TimesDaily.com.