DENVER (KDVR) — On Wednesday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Denver posted to X, asking for the public's help searching for a man arrested for DUI and released by Jefferson County, a statement that Jefferson County authorities are calling misleading.

On Thursday, the sheriff's office told the federal agency on X that under Colorado law, deputies are not allowed to directly turn over inmates to any law enforcement agency without a warrant.

"Let’s be clear: we are not legally allowed to directly turn over an inmate to any law enforcement agency without a judicially authorized warrant under Colorado law. That includes ICE," the sheriff's office stated.

In the post made on Wednesday, ICE said that it needed the community's assistance locating a man, "who was released from Jefferson County without being turned over to ICE." The federal agency provided a tip line for information about the man to be provided to ICE.

The Jeffco sheriff said on X that ICE must request to be notified about an inmate in the county's custody who is scheduled for release, and said that when such requests are made, the sheriff's office complies.

"We do not coordinate specific release times. Under Colorado law, we must release an inmate within six hours of when they are eligible for release. We will not violate Colorado law by holding inmates beyond the time it takes to process their release," the sheriff's office said.

The sheriff's office said that it "respects and follows Colorado law," and will continue to do so. The agency also said it will "stand by the truth," and said that ICE's post about the man's release was "misleading."

"When we called the ICE Denver office about their misleading post, they made their position unmistakable: if we do not provide ICE extra time to coordinate inmate pickups from our facility, in violation of Colorado law, deceptive posts like yesterday’s will become the norm," the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office said on X.

The agency provided a detailed timeline of the man's arrest and ICE's interaction with the sheriff's office on Wednesday.

The sheriff's office said that at about 11:52 a.m., the sheriff's office received an order to release the man. At noon, the sheriff's office spoke to an ICE representative via phone and told them about the release. Jeffco said that the representative told the county agency ICE would not be picking up the released inmate.

At 2:34 p.m., the man was released from the Jefferson County jail. The sheriff's office said that ICE did not come to the jail to pick up the man.