In response to President Donald Trump’s tough stance against illegal immigration, particularly against those with criminal records, the progressive left has focused its ire on the agency tasked with locating and removing such individuals — Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Some Democrats have called for ICE to be abolished.
That will likely never happen, though some liberal officials have declared their state, county or city to be a “sanctuary” for illegal aliens.
It’s a policy that has led those “sanctuary” jurisdictions to not cooperate with and even hinder ICE efforts to detain and deport criminal illegal aliens who pose a danger to the community.
Then, late last week, news leaked that ICE was about to conduct a series of coordinated raids in a number of major cities to collect and deport known criminal illegal aliens who had received deportation orders but failed to leave the country.
Days before those leaks were published, ICE agents in Seattle, Washington — a prominent sanctuary jurisdiction — issued a news release lamenting the lack of cooperation from local officials.
The release also shared the details regarding just a few of the dangerous criminals who’d been released instead of being handed over to ICE, only to commit horrific crimes.
ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations branch relies heavily upon the cooperation of local law enforcement agencies to cooperate and assist in the mission to expeditiously “identify, arrest and remove aliens who present a danger to national security or are a risk to public safety,” the ICE statement read.
ICE noted that there are increased risks for both agents and the general public when the agency is forced to go into various communities in search of deportable criminals.
The statement commended local law enforcement agencies around the country that help the agency minimize those risks by holding known criminal illegal aliens until they could be taken into custody by ICE.
But Bryan Wilcox, acting field operations director of ICE’s Seattle ERO branch, had some choice words for the sanctuary jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate and assist the agency in its mission.
“When local law enforcement decides to uphold sanctuary policies and release illegal criminal aliens without notifying ICE, it is a decision to protect and release criminals who are preying on victims in our communities,” Wilcox said.
“By allowing criminal aliens, particularly those with egregious criminal records, to be released it places everyone in potential danger. Danger that very well could be prevented through cooperation with immigration officials,” he added.
The release proceeded to summarize seven cases in Oregon and Washington state where local officials ignored ICE detainer requests and released known or suspected criminals onto the streets.
In some of those cases, the individuals then committed further offenses, like murder or rape, when they otherwise would have been deported from the country had the detainer requests been honored.
Four of those cases involved brutal murders that were allegedly committed after the criminal illegal aliens had been released from custody.
One of the three remaining aliens was suspected of raping a child, but nevertheless released.
More than a year later, he was “convicted of multiple counts of assault,” ICE said.
Another was a convicted rapist who was released and only deported after ICE managed to find him themselves.
The last case involved a man who was released to the community after being convicted of sexually abusing a dog.
As the ICE release noted: “A detainer is a request to local law enforcement agencies that ICE be notified as early as practicable — ideally at least 48 hours — before a removable alien is released from criminal custody and then briefly maintain custody of the alien for up to 48 hours to allow ICE to assume custody for removal purposes.”
“When law enforcement agencies fail to honor immigration detainers and release serious criminal offenders onto the streets, it undermines ICE’s ability to protect public safety and carry out its mission,” the release stated.
Fox News reported that Washington state recently passed legislation that not only forbids local jails and prisons from honoring detainers, but also prohibits “corrections officials from even letting ICE know about the pending release of a criminal illegal immigrant.”
Furthermore, the law compels the state attorney general to create rules that would prevent ICE agents from making immigration arrests at courthouses and hospitals when known criminal illegal aliens are located there.
“I think we’ve sort of hit a critical mass and this statute that the state passed is one step too far,” Wilcox told Fox of the new law.
A step too far, indeed, and one that should be called out and exposed for the danger it presents to local communities.
ICE should continue to publicize details of the horrible criminal illegal aliens that sanctuary cities are releasing into their own communities.
If nothing else, this will perhaps encourage the public to rise up and demand change.
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