Buckling under migrant invasion, sanctuary cities now work with ICE
Some sanctuary cities that once prided themselves on open immigration policies are now cooperating with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency as they buckle under a migrant invasion.
‘You have people being released and reoffending’
“For many, many years, certain states and jurisdictions just have been really reticent about dealing with us because of the civil immigration piece of it,” acting ICE Director P.J. Lechleitner told NBC News last week.
Sanctuary cities have refused to detain migrants on behalf of ICE or even to notify ICE if a migrant criminal is slated for release from prison. Such policies are known to lead to repeat offenses and some cities and counties are starting to regret it.
“You’ve seen some examples of this, where some individuals, unfortunately, were encountered by local law enforcement and because of the policies put in place, either at the state or local level, they weren’t allowed to notify immigration authorities . . . and all of a sudden you have people being released and reoffending,” Lechleitner said.
“We don’t want that. We want to make sure that public safety threats are appropriately mitigated.”
Although NBC insists that migrant crime is in fact dropping, officials in sanctuary areas like Baltimore County and Washington, DC’s Montgomery County have begun notifying ICE 48 hours before a violent migrant criminal is released from prison. Other jurisdictions, however, are being tight-lipped about their recent cooperation with ICE, perhaps for fear of being labeled “xenophobic” or “racist.”
Stubborn sanctuary states
Some areas continue to shun ICE in favor of staying true to their sanctuary city policies. California legislators, for example, voted down a bill in May that would have removed state sanctuary protections from illegal immigrant sex offenders. The legislation would have required local law enforcement to turn an illegal alien over to immigration authorities if he or she committed a sex crime.
California law
Under California’s sanctuary state law, law enforcement is prohibited from fully cooperating with immigration authorities. A California police officer cannot, for example, ask a person’s immigration status or detain an illegal immigrant at the request of ICE officials. If an illegal immigrant has been jailed or incarcerated for a crime, California law enforcement officials are forbidden from providing ICE authorities with the migrant’s release date.
How would things have been different?
The bill that was voted down would have stripped such protections from any illegal immigrant who is convicted of sexual abuse or crimes against minors:
[T]his bill would instead require law enforcement officials to cooperate with immigration authorities by detaining and transferring an individual and providing release information if a person has been convicted of a crime of sexual abuse or sexual exploitation of minors, or crimes committed against minors, as specified, or crimes committed against a minor that require registration under the Sex Offender Registration Act. By requiring local law enforcement to comply with requests from immigration authorities, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
Why was the bill introduced?
California Assemblyman Bill Essayli was inspired to introduce the legislation after learning that an illegal Columbian pedophile was set free in California instead of being turned over to ICE.
In 2021, the 23-year-old Colombian man entered the United States illegally through California. He traveled upstate to San Bernardino, where he was convicted of having sexual intercourse with a child more than three years younger than himself and “oral copulation of a person under 18.” He was sentenced to four years in prison, but released after 15 months by San Bernardino County.
When ICE officers asked prison authorities for the pedophile’s release date, the prison refused to provide it due to the state's sanctuary laws protecting illegal immigrants. ICE officials caught up with the Colombian national in Boston last month and apprehended him.
“On an unknown date, the noncitizen sex offender from California was released from state custody,” said ICE in a press release after the apprehension. “Regarding this matter, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office was hampered in its ability to assist in the case, due to California state law limiting local law enforcement cooperation with ICE.”
