Free Republic

California sheriffs who opposed adopting a “sanctuary state” law are now being tasked with implementing the law in their jails and retention policies. The law, which began as Senate Bill 54, was issued in response to President Trump’s campaign against illegal immigration. According to the Los Angeles Times, the sanctuary law “is designed to limit the people that California law enforcement agencies can detain, question or investigate at the request of federal immigration officials. But its impact will largely rely on county sheriffs whose departments play a vital role in immigration enforcement.” In sum, the law is an attempt to...

Two years ago, as others in California were limiting cooperation with federal immigration agents, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department welcomed them into its jail. Sheriff Margaret Mims gave U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement unrestricted access to databases and private rooms to interview inmates. She reorganized release times so agents could easily pick up people who had served their sentences. The policy sparked outrage among immigrant rights groups, who called it a pipeline from incarceration to immigrant detention, one that they said disproportionately and unfairly affects Latinos. “We are not anti-immigrant for working with ICE,” Mims said in defense of the...

Two major gubernatorial elections are on the Election 2017 campaign horizon. I wrote about the Virginia race one week ago. Ed Gillespie is now winning by focusing on Virginians’ day-to-day needs. More importantly, he is also doubling-down on his opposition to illegal immigration, and its deleterious consequences like the rising crime, gang activity, bad traffic, and diminishing quality of life.Across the Chesapeake, another governor’s race is raging. New Jersey, a colonial outpost for Quakers before the American Revolution, has turned into another California-style outpost of the urban-suburban divide, where compacted cities have been out-voting the more conservative rural and suburban...

The U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) issued a detainer request on the Sonoma County Jail for Jesus Fabian Gonzalez, who was arrested Sunday on suspicion of arson in Wine Country fires that have killed at least 40 residents.Breitbart News reported earlier this week that Sonoma County Sheriffs had arrested Jesus Fabian Gonzalez, 29, at Maxwell Regional Park in Sonoma County after a series of reports of ongoing fires in the region. Mr. Gonzalez was observed around 3:00 p.m. PDT wearing a jacket and walking “out of the creek area and a plume of smoke behind him,” according to the Santa Rosa...

The Justice Department on Thursday delivered a “last chance” warning to cities suspected of having "sanctuary" policies to drop their resistance to federal immigration officials. In a notice reviewed by Fox News, the DOJ announced that five jurisdictions “have preliminarily been found to have laws, policies, or practices that may violate” a key federal statute concerning cooperation with federal immigration officials. They are: Chicago, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia and Cook County, Ill. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a written statement that sanctuary cities “adopt the view that the protection of criminal aliens is more important than the...

Commentary: Welcome to the dysfunction of Illinois government Diana Sroka Rickert I walked into the Thompson Center on my first day, not knowing what to expect. In many ways, my new workplace was like any other large organization: big building, thousands of people and plenty of broken computers. Except this building is dilapidated, many of the employees are political hires and the computers will never be repaired, ever. And it’s all paid for by you, Illinois taxpayers. “Welcome to state government,” said a new colleague, as we boarded the elevator for the 16th floor. This summer I got to see...

ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan says in addition to conducting arrests “in local neighborhoods and worksites in California”, his agency will also likely have to place immigrants arrested in California in out-of-state detention centers. “ICE will have no choice but to conduct at-large arrests in local neighborhoods and at worksites, which will inevitably result in additional collateral arrests, instead of focusing on arrests at jails and prisons where transfers are safer for ICE officers and the community,” Homan said in a statement.

... A sampling of immigration bills signed into law: ‘Sanctuary state’: aims to prevent local law enforcement officers from assisting with a promised crackdown on illegal immigration. Landlords and housing: will make it illegal for landlords to use someone’s real or perceived immigration status against them. Workplace raids: would require an employer to require proper court documents before allowing immigration agents access to the workplace or to employee information. ‘Dreamer’ and student protections: prevents schools from collecting information about the immigration status of students or their families. Immigration detention centers: places a moratorium on new or renewed contracts between local...

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) teams made 498 arrests in “sanctuary cities” this past week as part of an enforcement action dubbed “safe city.” Those arrested included 317 people with criminal convictions, 68 immigration fugitives, 104 people who had previously been deported and 18 known gang members. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney (D) denounced the ICE raids as “an infringement on our city’s sovereignty. We gave our word to these undocumented immigrants that they would be safe from arrest in our jurisdiction. Now we look like fools.” The Mayor vowed legal action “to reverse this egregious miscarriage of justice. We’re...

On September 18, 2017, roughly one week after the 16th anniversary of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, the LA Times reported on California's "sanctuary state" bill-SB 54 that would ostensibly “expand protections for immigrants” by preventing officers from questioning and holding people on immigration violations.   To understand the ominousness of this measure, we must look back to the 9/11 Commission's official “9/11 and  Terrorist Travel” report, which focused on the multiple failures of the immigration system that enabled the 9/11 terrorists and other international terrorists to enter the United States and embed themselves as they went about their deadly preparations....

Last week California legislators worked three shifts to pass SB 54, the sanctuary state bill, and other measures protecting those who violated U.S. immigration law. As they did so, a recent shooting in San Francisco recalled the murder of Kate Steinle in 2015.   Last December, immigration authorities detained Erick Garcia-Pineda, 18, who entered the United States illegally. According to an Associated Press report, Garcia-Pineda was released in April but slated for deportation, fitted with an ankle monitor, and required to check in with federal authorities.  Garcia-Pineda failed to show up for his August appointment and ICE could not...

The scrapping over JAG money (Justice Assistance Grants) for sanctuary cities reached the next level this week. A federal judge in Chicago somehow issued an injunction preventing the Justice Department from not issuing grant money to non-compliant cities. As the Associated Press reports, it was Chicago bringing the challenge, but the judge extended his ruling to cover the entire country. A federal judge has ruled Attorney General Jeff Sessions cannot follow through with his threat to withhold public safety grant money to Chicago and other so-called sanctuary cities for refusing his order to impose tough immigration policies. U.S. District Judge...

Governor Jerry Brown prepares to privilege the lawless. As California’s legislative session winds down, Democrats are pushing hard for approval of SB 54, the “sanctuary state” bill authored by the senator formerly known as Kevin Alexander Leon. The Los Angeles Democrat now calls himself Kevin de León, claiming that his Guatemalan-born father was “a quarter, or as much as half-Chinese.” He’s not quite sure about that but as his hagiographers in the Sacramento Bee explain, he “identifies strongly with Mexican culture.” Under the Democrat’s sanctuary state bill, police can only transfer someone to federal immigration authorities if they produce a warrant...

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday assured incoming high schoolers that they need not to worry about President Trump ending the “Dreamers” program, saying Chicago Public Schools are a “Trump-free” sanctuary for young illegal immigrants. “To all the Dreamers that are here in this room and in the city of Chicago: You are welcome in the city of Chicago. This is your home. And you have nothing to worry about,” Mr. Emanuel told a group of freshman on the first day of classes at Solorio Academy High School, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. “Chicago, our schools, our neighborhoods, our city, as...

Voters in 11 battleground states key to controlling the Senate in 2018 and presidency in 2020 overwhelming support the administration's effort to end so-called "sanctuary" policies for illegal immigrant criminals in over 300 cities, according to a new poll on the explosive issue. Even more significantly, over 83 percent of Hispanics want the sanctuaries to obey federal demands to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and turn over illegals sought for deportation, according to the survey from the Federation for American Immigration Reform. ***snip*** According to FAIR, over 77 percent of voters in the 11 states want the Senate to...

In August, the Denver City Council proposed an ordinance to reduce its cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security to bolster its bona fides as a "sanctuary city." Denver's latest progressive hectoring, prideful virtue signaling, and puerile chest-thumping is icing on the cake.By whatever delineating characteristics are applied—there is no legal definition—Denver has been a sanctuary city for about 20 years. Soon it will be held accountable for its irresponsible conduct, either by the Trump administration or by a growing legion of crime victims.Although some Americans harbor wistful fantasies on what it means for a city or county—out of compassion,...

The killing of a Santa Rosa woman by an undocumented immigrant two weeks ago has exposed a constitutional feud between federal and county governments over the detention of immigrants at the Sonoma County Jail. The dispute stems from the release of a Guatemalan national, Nery Israel Estrada- Margos, 38, who bailed out of the jail Aug. 3, a day after being booked on domestic battery charges. While in custody, Estrada- Margos’ fingerprints matched those in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement database. The federal agency sent an immigration detainer request to jail officials, asking them to hold Estrada-Margos for up to...

A federal judge on Wednesday night temporarily blocked most of a Texas immigration law that bans sanctuary jurisdictions throughout the state. U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia in San Antonio issued a temporary injunction against Senate Bill 4, which was set to go into effect Friday, reports Associated Press. SB4 is widely regarded as the toughest statewide anti-sanctuary city law in the country. The bill allows police officers to inquire about the immigration status of people they detain or arrest and requires local law enforcement agencies to honor detention requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It also allows Texas to...

Gov. Bruce Rauner Monday signed into law one bill that would protect immigrants who are in the country illegally from being detained solely because of their immigration status and another that would automatically register many Illinoisans to vote. The Republican governor's approval of the controversial immigration legislation marks a victory for immigrant advocates and a defeat for the more conservative members of his party, who had lobbied against it.

Fifty-three Democratic members of the House and Senate signed a letter of protest against Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ plan to withhold federal law-enforcement aid from cities that flout US immigration laws. Signer Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill) complained that “Sessions is only making a bad situation worse. Even with the federal aid Chicago is a virtual combat zone with dozens of shootings every week. He should be backing gun-control legislation, not insisting on the enforcement of immigration laws that would end up deporting felons who are in the country illegally.” Sessions called the letter “an endorsement of illegality. We have laws...