ICE puts California, Illinois, New York on notice for refusing to cooperate

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(The Center Square) – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons has contacted the attorneys general of California, Illinois and New York about their states’ noncompliance with ICE detainer requests and policies of releasing dangerous criminals onto the streets.

The states have policies prohibiting local jurisdictions, including jails and prisons, from complying with ICE detainer requests. ICE has lodged thousands of detainer requests with jurisdictions where illegal foreign nationals are already in custody after they’ve been charged with crimes in order to transfer them into federal custody.

Detention requests include asking local jurisdiction to hold alleged criminal foreign nationals for roughly 48 hours until ICE can pick them up; notifying ICE when individuals they are looking for are in custody and are scheduled to be released to enable a custody transfer, among similar requests. 

ICE officers are making the request because they already have orders from federal immigration judges to apprehend criminal foreign nationals, take them into custody, and process them for removal. Detention requests allow transfer of custody and notification, which law enforcement agencies at the local and state level already engage in with each other, ICE argues. 

Sanctuary policies are being implemented in cities where cashless bail for serious crimes exists, enabling violent offenders onto the streets. The Trump administration has begun cracking down on crime in cities where cashless bail policies have been implemented.

Prohibiting local law enforcement from cooperating with ICE makes it harder and more dangerous for ICE officers to take violent offenders into custody and makes it more dangerous for residents because criminals go on to commit more crimes, The Center Square reported. 

Illinois and New York replied to Lyons initial communications that they won’t honor ICE detainers requests; California did not respond, DHS said. Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed into law a bill to ban federal agents from wearing facial coverings in California. DHS and ICE said they will not comply.  

Lyons again followed up with California, Illinois and New York AGs last week stating the Department of Justice would sue them and all future applicable federal funding would be blocked if their states continued to block ICE immigration enforcement efforts. This time, the Department of Homeland Security said the Illinois AG refused to accept Lyon’s letter.     

The states’ refusal to comply with ICE detainer requests "will result in thousands of criminal aliens being released” into their communities, endangering their residents, Lyons said. As a result, ICE will work “with the U.S. Department of Justice and other federal partners to pursue all appropriate measures against you,” he wrote the AGs.

Despite sanctuary jurisdiction resistance, so far this year, ICE officers working with other federal agents have arrested more than 400,000 criminal foreign nationals, 70% of whom have multiple criminal charges or convictions, DHS said.

DHS has cited examples of violent offenders being released onto the streets in California, Illinois and New York, with the majority being Mexican nationals. Their criminal histories include charges and convictions for rape, inflicting corporal injury on a spouse/cohabitant, battery, oral copulation with person under 14, aggravated assault, DUI, trespassing, criminal damage to property, public indecency, violation of order of protection, assault, procuring prostitution, domestic violence/assault, drug possession, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, active warrants for drug manufacturing, prior deportation orders, burglary, among others, according to DHS records.

Unlike Democratic officials in these states, Mexican officials are working with the Trump administration to take violent offenders off the streets. This includes Mexican officials responding to extradition requests, taking back their citizens, and implementing cross-border operations targeting high level cartel operatives wanted in both countries for a range of financial crimes and human rights abuses, The Center Square reported.

Sanctuary jurisdictions are also releasing into their communities Venezuelan nationals and confirmed Tren de Aragua gang members, a designated foreign terrorist organization under the Trump administration. Their combined criminal histories include repeat arrests for burglary, shoplifting, reckless conduct, aggravated assault with a weapon, armed violence, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, sexual assault, domestic battery, and kidnapping, among other crimes, according to ICE records.