The Cascade County Detention Center is the only jail in Montana with a contract to hold immigration detainees for longer than 72 hours. According to Sheriff Jesse Slaughter, it’s a matter of revenue.
“Federal inmates bring in $55 more a day than state inmates,” Slaughter said during a county meeting on Thursday. “This revenue is vital to preventing budget shortfalls and continuing operation.”
Amid the Trump administration’s highly publicized immigration enforcement and news that the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office was considering an expansion of immigration detentions, concerned community members gathered at the recent county commission meeting to oppose the county’s role.
The community concern also prompted Slaughter and Cascade County Attorney Josh Racki to comment on the current state of immigration detention at the county jail. According to those officials, a contract approved in 2021 with the U.S. Marshals Service obligates Cascade County to house those detainees.
“We have no authority under this contract to deny a class of prisoner or based on who arrested them as a federal agency,” Racki said.
The 2021 contract describes eligible detainees as including “individuals who are awaiting a hearing on their immigration status or deportation.” It also includes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on the list of federal agencies authorized to commit people to the jail under this contract.
The contract also cemented a $115 daily fee paid to the county jail for each federal detainee. Slaughter said Thursday that inmate contracts comprise more than 70% of the jail’s $14 million annual budget. County property tax revenue contributes about $4 million annually, he said.
“These decisions are based on public safety and fiscal responsibility, not political agendas,” Slaughter said.
Members of the community who spoke at the meeting refuted the county’s role in Trump-era immigration enforcement. The commenters included local faith leaders and candidates for local office who brought up logistical concerns of housing federal detainees while the jail faces chronic overcrowding.
They also brought up moral concerns and the impact of current immigration enforcement on nonwhite and undocumented people. Multiple reports nationwide have shown immigration arrests of undocumented people who show up for routine check-ins and the apparently mistaken, temporary detentions of U.S. citizens traveling internationally.
RELATED
Judge denies Helena man’s petition for release following immigration arrest
A federal judge in Missoula denied a Helena man’s petition for release after immigration officers detained him earlier this month, citing a lack of jurisdiction over the case.
“I do not want the county in which I reside to be participating in practices that do not reflect what we say our values are,” said the Rev. Lynne Spencer-Smith of the First Congregational United Church in Great Falls. “We say we want our community to be a welcoming community. I’m not sure that entering into an agreement with ICE and our current practices reflect such hospitality.”
Detainees in Cascade County have included Christopher Martinez Marvan, a Helena resident who was arrested earlier this month in a traffic stop. Helena police and federal officials were reportedly looking for someone else when they pulled over Martinez Marvan on July 1. Local police intended to write a ticket and release Martinez Marvan, but U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations agents detained him.
Martinez Marvan is a Mexican citizen who had applied for U.S. citizenship but was denied. He lived in Helena with his wife, a U.S. citizen, and their children.
After his arrest, Martinez Marvan was detained at the Cascade County jail. Slaughter said that federal authorities transferred him to another facility earlier this month. The attorney for Martinez Marvan told MTFP that he was sent to a jail in Tacoma, Washington, after a hearing in Missoula July 15, although an inmate tool for ICE doesn’t provide his current location, only that he is in custody.
This week, the Cascade County jail reported 305 inmates and detainees at the facility, including 96 who are there through federal contracts. Most of those are unrelated to immigration enforcement but face criminal cases in federal courts.
RELATED
In Cascade County, jail diversion programs aim to address perennial issues
Cascade County public safety departments are finalizing two programs that could help relieve the jail of certain low-level felony offenders and people who would be better served by mental health professionals.
As of Friday, there were six detainees listed on the county jail roster as “ICE — immigration inmate.”
Odilon Valdes-De Jesus, 55, was convicted of illegal reentry and released into the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection earlier this month. Authorities arrested him in Havre in May after determining that his vehicle was “registered to an individual that is illegally present in the United States,” court documents state.
Luis Alberto Vega-Lili, 57, was arrested in March as federal authorities conducted “train check operations” aboard an Amtrak car in Havre. Court documents said that a CBP officer “encountered Vega-Lili on the train and began to ask him general questions about his travel.” He was sentenced for the use of a fraudulent immigration document in early July and placed in CBP custody.
Authorities began tracking Luis Alberto Orozco-Ramirez, 40, after his brother was arrested in March in Scobey. The brother was driving Orozco-Ramirez’s car. Immigration agents tracked Orozco-Ramirez to Bainville and arrested him July 22. According to court documents, he was last deported in 2010. He is scheduled for an initial appearance in U.S. District Court Monday.
Rolando Rojas Orihuela, 36, was arrested earlier this month in Big Sky, where he worked at a hotel and is accused of stealing from a guest’s suitcase, according to the Belgrade News.
Nahun Esau Suazo-Varela, 48, pleaded guilty to illegal reentry earlier this month. Court documents say he last entered the United States in 2010. Federal agents arrested him in Havre in May after determining his vehicle was “registered to an individual that had overstayed the terms of their admission in the United States,” according to court documents. His sentencing is set for Aug. 27.
MTFP was unable to locate court documents or reports about Melvin Duvier Agueta Cruz, a 25-year-old who is the sixth person in Cascade County Detention Center listed as an ICE detainee.
While local officials are working under a 2021 contract with the U.S. Marshals Service to accept ICE detainees, they are also looking to enter a new contract with ICE. Slaughter told MTFP that those discussions are in an early phase, but it could mean an additional 10 beds being available to ICE.
During the county meeting, Slaughter said that an ICE contract could also help the county renegotiate the U.S. Marshals contract for a more favorable rate.
“An ICE contract, if we decide to do that, will bring in an additional $1 million to $2 million per year in revenue and has potential to set the bar in increasing our U.S. Marshal contract,” he said.
Gallatin County considered a detention contract with ICE this year but backed away from negotiations amid public outcry.
While Slaughter said that he didn’t agree with some current practices, such as ICE agents wearing masks that shield their identities, he said that immigration detention remains part of federal law enforcement and that the jail’s revenue structure relies on those contracts.
“If we eliminate these federal contracts, the consequences are severe,” he said.
In-depth, independent reporting on the stories impacting your community from reporters who know your town.
LATEST STORIES
Gianforte extends deadline for landlords to avoid second-home tax
Gov. Greg Gianforte that a “technical glitch” has spurred the state to extend an application deadline that thousands of Montana landlords need to meet in order to avoid the state’s new second-home tax. The deadline, which had been set for March 1, has now been pushed back to midnight on March 20.
Montana ranks 7th for U.S. Olympians per capita
Montana ranks seventh in the nation for the number of Olympic athletes by birthplace on a per-capita basis since 1924, placing the state behind Alaska and New Hampshire and ahead of New York and Rhode Island.
BLM nominee talks land sales, local management in Senate confirmation hearing
Steve Pearce, a New Mexico Republican who appeared before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Feb. 25, 2026, has come under fire from conservation groups for formerly calling for the sale of federal land to reduce the federal deficit.