Kentucky AG Russell Coleman fires back at Gov. Beshear over ICE cooperation

EXCLUSIVE: Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman fired back at Gov. Andy Beshear’s comments on “The View” about pulling ICE out of “every city,” setting up what could become a high-stakes intergovernmental battle over cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

“Every ICE agent should be withdrawn from every city and every community that they’re in. This organization has to be reformed from the top-down. Secretary Noem needs to be fired, and every agent needs to retrained,” Beshear told the ABC talk show, before adding the “body-count of American citizens” should lead to a “pause [to] pull everybody back.”

Coleman, who spoke to Fox News Digital from the sheriff’s office in Daviess County — home of NASCAR legend Darrell Waltrip and one of several Kentucky jurisdictions that work with ICE — said his take is “not a political one” and that ICE also has the backing of those lawmen he was meeting with after the interview.

“My view as the chief law enforcement officer of this commonwealth, someone that’s carried a badge and a gun, someone that has been a federal prosecutor, [is] that statement that the governor made was absurd,” Coleman said.

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Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, left, and Gov. Andy Beshear (Marcus Dorsey/Getty Images; Gary Gershoff/Getty Images)

Coleman said the dispute centers on Beshear’s “commentary” versus the reality of which agencies he controls.

The Kentucky State Police fall under Beshear’s authority, but they currently work with ICE. Meanwhile, Coleman’s office works with the state’s 120 county sheriffs’ offices, many of which cooperate with the Department of Homeland Security.

“I don’t want to set up a straw-dog argument because the reality is the collaboration is never going to stop here because those of us who have taken an oath to protect families are going to work with our federal partners,” he said, pointing to recent successes across the Tug Fork River where such collaboration led to the arrests of 650 illegal immigrants in West Virginia.

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As for the legal ramifications of a potential clash between a DHS-aligned attorney general and a governor with opposing objectives, one legal expert said the situation presents an interesting case.

Former Florida federal prosecutor Zack Smith said that while every state’s attorney generalship is slightly different, a governor is an elected constitutional officer, just as sheriffs are, and that neither can tell the other what to do “in most instances.”

“The attorney general can issue opinions of law. He can issue certain advisory opinions about what state law means or requires. But there are very few instances, in Florida at least, where the attorney general can compel another constitutional officer, like sheriffs, to comply with state law.”

“Now, if they violate state law or something like that, obviously, he could then prosecute them, but there’s really not a lot he could do as a practical matter,” he said, adding that Beshear is likely relying on his gubernatorial “bully pulpit” to effect change.

“There are probably limits to what he can do — and keep in mind the 287(g) agreements” in the counties.

“I think this from a practical and policy perspective, this is a very foolish and very dangerous statement by the governor of Kentucky,” he said, pointing to Minnesota chaos bred from similar opposition to ICE operations.

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Beshear’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Both Beshear and Coleman have served as attorney general — something the governor mentioned on “The View” — but Coleman said Beshear should therefore know that cooperation with federal authorities is preferable to going on offense.

“I’d like to, on one hand, be respectful of my predecessor… [but] anyone who’s spent time in law enforcement… knows that we are more effective at protecting people,” he said, noting that the county he was sitting in has ICE to thank for removing a violent child-sex predator from the streets and that local Owensboro authorities cooperated with a DHS operation to arrest an illegal immigrant who had been financially extorting seniors.

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In neighboring Virginia, officials are moving to follow Beshear’s advice by ending state-federal cooperation forged under former Gov. Glenn Youngkin and advancing bills to restrict DHS collaboration.

When asked, Coleman said he does not see Frankfort following Richmond’s lead anytime soon and lamented the loss of several cooperative colleagues in Virginia.

“Fortunately, I don’t have to face that hypothetical here in this Commonwealth, but in our Mother Commonwealth (Virginia), it’s been very concerning. We [also] hated to lose a phenomenal colleague in Jason Miyares,” he added.

DHS also pushed back on Beshear’s position. Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said federal law enforcement “will continue arresting criminal illegal aliens across the state of Kentucky while sanctuary politicians like Governor Beshear continue to demonize our law enforcement and side with criminal illegal aliens over American citizens.”

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“We need state and local law enforcement engagement and information so we don’t have to have such a presence on the streets,” she said.

She listed several recent arrests in Kentucky, including Roman Sanchez, described as a criminal illegal immigrant convicted of homicide, willful killing of a family member with a gun, larceny, robbery, receiving stolen property and armed street robbery, as well as several individuals convicted of rape.