Charleston Sheriff responds to congressman’s allegations

CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) – Charleston County Sheriff Kristin Graziano minced her words in a brief statement to reporters Wednesday morning, a day after she was accused of ignoring Immigration and Customs Enforcement stop orders and endangering safety in the county.

Graziano, a Democrat seeking re-election, began her remarks by saying that U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican representing South Carolina’s 1st congressional district who made the allegations Tuesday afternoon, was “full of sh*t.”

“She clearly doesn’t understand the law. She’s in a position where she can control Congress and she hasn’t done her job. She’s trying to make her failure our problem,” Graziano said. “If she doesn’t like the law, she has the power in Congress to change it, but she hasn’t done that.”

The sheriff said the congresswoman was trying to “influence the local elections.”

Mace claimed that Graziano was “systematically dismantling immigration enforcement” in Charleston County and that her office had “ignored at least 51 ICE arrest warrants” since 2021.

Mace also said that ICE has recognized the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office as a “non-cooperative institution.”

Graziano released a statement in response Tuesday afternoon, saying Mace “never misses an opportunity to engage in performative politics” and “has a history of misrepresenting events for her perceived political gain.” Mace’s letter was “particularly egregious.”

“Our policy clearly states on our public website that ‘SACDC will only detain residents for ICE if they have an I-247 form, a warrant, and an immigration order signed by an immigration judge. The immigration judge’s order has no expiration date and it will honor the residents to detain them,'” Graziano said in the statement. “There are currently 13 individuals housed in our facility who are being detained by an immigration judge. We have never denied a judge’s order, and ICE officers are the ones responsible for obtaining these orders.”

She added that her agency does not release any inmate without a court order and has never done so.

Sheriff’s office spokeswoman Alexis Douglas disputed a claim in Mace’s letter that the sheriff’s office refused to comply with an ICE warrant for a person believed to be in the country without permission and charged with two counts of criminal solicitation of a minor. Douglas said the sheriff’s office never received a warrant at the time.

“If we had done that, we would have detained them,” Douglas said.

“I don’t have time for this”: Sheriff calls for reduction in violent crime

“She’s a liar and that’s just reckless,” Graziano said of Mace. “I’m a little too busy right now.”

The sheriff said she stood by her statement on Tuesday regarding her agency’s policies and did not address specific allegations beyond her comments the day before.

“I’m a little busy protecting the citizens of Charleston County, OK? We’re seeing a steady decline in violent crime in Charleston County,” Graziano said. “I’m busy doing that while she consistently votes against supporting law enforcement. I don’t have time for that. We don’t have time for that and we’re going to continue doing business as usual. She’s got to do her damn job and let law enforcement do ours.”

Meanwhile, Mace said in a press release on Wednesday that she had requested records from ICE regarding Graziano’s “failure to comply with arrest warrants.”

The request, Mace’s office said, includes all email communications between ICE agents and Charleston County Sheriff’s Office agents on or after January 4, as well as all documents related to arrest warrants issued by ICE to the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office on or after January 4, “including criminal charges filed against each alien and whether the alien was released from custody by the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office.”

She asked the agency to release the documents by Oct. 15, the same deadline she gave Graziano to return similar documents she requested on Tuesday.

This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.

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