Luis Fuentes-Rohwer, an IU Maurer School of Law professor who teaches civil procedure, is questioning Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita’s use of social media to attack Monroe County Sheriff Ruben Marte. The sheriff has denied Rokita’s accusation.
Rokita took to the social media platform X to accuse Marté this month of ignoring his office’s policy on Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainment requests. Marte denies Rokita’s claims.
Rokita posted on July 10: “ Instead of honoring ICE’s detainer request and getting this criminal out of our country entirely, he was released back into the community and has assaulted someone else. Now, he is back in Monroe County jail. Don’t make the same mistake. Work with ICE this time and DEPORT HIM! This should’ve never happened and we will continue working to hold Sheriff Marté accountable.”
The post refers to a case where Rokita claims Marté’s office ignored an ICE detainment request for Manuel Lopez Lopez, who was arrested by police in July on charges of attempted rape, battery and confinement. He pleaded guilty to the confinement charges and served 222 days of a 444-day jail sentence before being released in February.
Read more: Monroe County Sheriff denies ignoring ICE detainer request
Lopez Lopez was arrested again this month for attempted rape after police said he attacked a woman on the B-Line Trail in Bloomington.
“(Rokita)’s here to enforce the laws of the state of Indiana,” Fuentes-Rohwer said. “That is his role. So that's what he's doing. But that's not from my reading of this altercation, that is not clear to me that is what he’s doing.”
Rokita shared a picture of a detainer on X that was filed Feb. 19, 2025: “When @ICEgov says a detainer is on the way, delivers it to your department within minutes, and you still choose to release a criminal alien into the community - you are not cooperating with ICE.”
But immigration lawyer Christie Popp said Rokita’s social media postings are misleading and don’t acknowledge the legal rules of an ICE detainer and court orders.
A judge issued a sentencing and release for Lopez Lopez’s on Feb. 19, 2025– the same day as the ICE detainer.
After the court ordered him released, Popp said Marté could not hold Lopez Lopez without violating the Fourth Amendment.
“The courts have consistently said that a jail cannot take someone back into custody without probable cause that they have committed a crime or without a warrant signed by a judge or a neutral judge or magistrate,” Popp said.
Popp said ICE could have detained Lopez Lopez when he left the justice building that day. ICE was in Bloomington in April and didn’t detain him.
“They could have detained him right then and there,” she said. “ICE can detain someone in a public space whenever they want.”
ICE can’t enter private spaces without a warrant signed by a judge, Popp added. A jail can’t hold someone for ICE for longer than 48 hours without a warrant.
Popp said ICE uses databases that are often faulty to issue detainers. And multiple local sheriff’s departments have been sued for holding people, usually for damages relief.
Popp said case law in Indiana already favors Marte because of City Of Gary v. Nicholson. The court of appeals in that case found that detainers are unreasonable seizures.
People reach plea deals and are released from a court and jail all the time, Fuentes-Rohwer said. He’s concerned that Rokita is challenging resolution through the courts when someone is an immigrant.
“Not to defend this case, I would never do that,” Fuentes-Rohwer said. “But if it were not an immigrant involved, we would not be talking.”
