As immigration continues to be a hot button issue across the country, here in the Capital Region, one local county jail is no longer housing ICE detainees.

According to Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple, ICE stopped sending detainees to the county jail back in January.

The jail previously housed detainees for level offenses until they moved to a federal facility.

Most were asylum seekers.

Sheriff Apple worked with various agencies and organizations to get detainees access to healthcare, legal counseling, and other services as they prepared to interview with federal immigration officials.

"You know you've got a lot of people in this country who are to get here, stay here legally, but the way, there so much of a divide that people aren't willing to help them,” Apple said. “That's pretty sad.  I don't think that's really what the system is supposed to be."

While the county made $4.5 million from taking in detainees, Sheriff Apple says he has no plans to house them again.