Minnesota immigrant advocates take their message to Washington

More than 50 members of a Minnesota-based civil rights group are heading on a week-long trip to Washington, D.C., to advocate for changes to federal immigration law.

While there, the group organizing the trip, Asamblea de Derechos Civiles (Assembly for Civil Rights), will make a stop at a detention center in the nation's capitol. They hope to bring attention to recent decisions by Hennepin and Ramsey counties to stop complying with federal detainer requests.

• More: Hennepin County to stop honoring immigration holds

The requests, which come from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, ask local jails to hold inmates for up to two days after local charges are cleared.

In the past, these requests were considered mandatory. But on Wednesday, Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek said there is no legal reason to follow the ICE orders and moved to stop following the requests, making Hennepin the first county in Minnesota to do so.

Ramsey County soon followed suit and opted to only hold inmates if there's a court order. Immigration rights advocacy groups have fought the detainers in recent years, saying they're unconstitutional for depriving people's due process rights.

Pablo Tapia, one of Asamblea's co-founders, praised the two counties' decisions and called the detainer requests a "nuisance" that misuses taxpayer dollars. In addition, he said not following the detainers could help improve relationships between law enforcement and minority communities.

"Now that these sheriffs have stepped up to the plate...that's going to give us a relief," he said. "Relief to all of us as a minority group."

Tapia will go on the trip, which he said will also include meetings with U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken, and House Speaker John Boehner's staff in Ohio. Aside from protesting ICE detainers, Asamblea members will call for a range of immigration policy changes.