It’s beyond question that sanctuary state/city policies have hindered the ability of federal immigration enforcement officials to do their jobs. Too many criminal illegal aliens are still being released back onto the streets because ICE isn’t informed and given enough time to pick them up. But all the news isn’t bad. As it turns out, in many cities and counties with these so-called sanctuary laws in place, the local cops have continued working with ICE in more “unofficial” ways, maintaining long-standing personal relationships and using those connections to get the job done. And there are plenty of Democrats that are simply furious over this. (Associated Press)

Two years after New Mexico’s largest county barred local law enforcement from cooperating with immigration authorities, its leaders learned that the policy was being subverted from within.

Staff members at the Bernalillo County jail in Albuquerque were still granting immigration authorities access to its database and, in some cases, tipping them off when a person of interest was being released.

“I was surprised and horrified,” said Maggie Hart Stebbins, chairwoman of the Bernalillo County Commission. “Individual employees do not have the freedom to pick and choose what they want to observe.”

There’s an interesting response for you. The Chair of New Mexico’s Bernalillo County Commission was (direct quote) “surprised and horrified” to find that known criminal illegal aliens were, in at least some cases, being taken into custody for processing, prosecution, and possible deportation. This is apparently what passes for “a bad thing” in some Democratic circles.

It’s not limited to just New Mexico, thankfully. The report goes on to state that the same practice has been observed in places including Philadelphia, Chicago and multiple communities across California. Are we surprised? These are real human beings we’re talking about here, not just dry policy points on county resolutions. Some of these law enforcement officers have been on the job for decades and have built relationships with their colleagues across the local, state and federal levels. They’re all interested in the same things… enforcing the law and keeping people safe. Is it really all that shocking to find that they stay in touch in their free time and even help each other out?

We could certainly use more of this. If there had been some cooperation in the San Jose case of Carlos Eduardo Arevalo, 59-year-old Bambi Larson might still be alive today. After being deported, Arevalo was arrested at least an additional ten times before murdering Larson. In a half dozen of those cases, ICE had specifically asked that he be detained so they could pick him up. Yet, each time, nobody informed ICE in a timely fashion so they could try to send him back home.

But who is going to be punished for all of this activity? The cops. Not the criminal illegal aliens. These local government officials would rather go after their own police in the interest of scoring political points. The world has turned upside down and our law enforcement officers increasingly find themselves with nobody in the government willing to back them up.