The Trump administration has made an implicit offer to sanctuary jurisdictions: Let ICE into their prisons and jails, and deportation officers won’t be swarming their streets.
They’ve had few takers.
Fueled by their political base and anger at President Trump, Democrat-led jurisdictions have instead told U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement they’re not just unwelcome in prisons and jails but, in many cases, insisted they’re not welcome on the streets of their communities.
Things have grown more tense after this month’s shootings in Minneapolis and Portland, Oregon, which left one U.S. citizen dead and two illegal immigrants wounded.
Left-wing activists, joined by some members of Congress, have been protesting outside Homeland Security officers, demanding that ICE retreat.
Rep. Pete Aguilar, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, told reporters that Democrats do want to see “violent criminals” who are in the country illegally be deported, but ICE has gone beyond that, and Americans have soured on its mission.
“If you’re asking if we support local law enforcement being part of this Gestapo, of rounding up individuals, our answer is no,” the California lawmaker said. “Local officials should be responsible for protecting their local communities. That’s what local law enforcement does.”
He said ICE “should follow a process” in identifying whom it wants to arrest.
ICE officials, though, say that’s what the “detainer” is all about.
It’s a notification to a state or local law enforcement operation, usually a prison or jail, alerting them that someone in their custody is wanted by ICE as a deportable alien.
DHS said Minnesota alone has defied nearly 470 detainer requests in the year since President Trump took office, instead releasing those people back into the community.
Among them were illegal immigrants arrested for child sex crimes and negligent manslaughter, and ones convicted of terroristic threats, burglary and aggravated robbery.
DHS counts more than 1,360 migrants in Minnesota prisons and jails right now who are subject to ICE detainers — but whom the agency fears will also be released instead of turned over.
“It is common sense. Criminal illegal aliens should not be released back onto our streets to terrorize more innocent Americans,” said Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary at DHS.
Mr. Aguilar said ICE should get warrants if it wants to collect people from local authorities. And he said those should be “judicial warrants, not fake, phony ICE warrants.”
“They have a process to do that, and it should be to use the courts to execute warrants that keep this country safe. They are choosing not to do that. They are choosing chaos in the streets,” he said.
It’s an argument echoed by local politicians, some local law enforcement and even judges.
Experts, though, said they’re wrong about the process.
Deportation is a civil matter, so there’s no avenue for ICE to obtain a criminal warrant in a deportation case. Some illegal immigrants can be charged with crimes, which could trigger a criminal warrant signed by a judge, but that takes things beyond the deportation framework and into actual federal convictions and jail time.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan told The Washington Times that sanctuary jurisdictions were playing “a game” by demanding judicial warrants.
He said the release into communities means ICE has to go pick those migrants up on the streets, which is more dangerous for everyone involved.
“Instead, what these sanctuary jurisdictions are doing is they’re saying, ‘No, we’re going to release him to the street. And by doing so, they jeopardize the safety of the public,” Mr. Jordan said.
Detainers ask that the local agency notify ICE before releasing a target. They also ask that the local agency detain the person for up to 48 hours past their official release time.
Some jurisdictions will notify but won’t hold for the 48 hours, arguing that it would be an unconstitutional detention since they’ve already completed their time on the local matter.
Strict sanctuaries won’t cooperate on notifications, saying any entanglement with ICE poisons their own relations with their immigrant communities.
Some sanctuaries go even further.
New York has banned ICE officers from even trying to make their own arrests at state courthouses. A federal judge has upheld that policy as legal, saying to allow ICE arrests would be to commandeer the state’s police into assisting the feds against their will.
Mr. Trump has said “no more payments” will go to sanctuary cities starting Feb. 1. It’s not clear what legal authority he will cite, nor what programs he has in mind.
Previous attempts to strip money from sanctuary cities in both this and the first Trump administration were routinely blocked by courts.
Then there’s the matter of defining what is a sanctuary city.
When the Homeland Security Department attempted to create a list last spring, with hundreds of names, it was quickly pulled. The Justice Department then created its own list with only a few dozen states, counties and cities listed.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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