cting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Matthew Albence on Thursday revealed a recent ICE operation nabbed dozens of illegal immigrants with a record of child sex offenses, as he railed against the dangers of “sanctuary cities” he said put public safety at risk.
“It’s time to publicly call out those who have put politics over public safety, those who make our communities less secure, who create safe havens in which criminal aliens and gangs are allowed to flourish and can victimize innocent people with impunity,” he said in a White House briefing, surrounded by sheriffs and other law enforcement officials.
The briefing was part of a coordinated push by the Trump administration to again highlight the dangers of “sanctuary” jurisdictions that refuse to comply with detainers from immigration enforcement authorities. Senior ICE officials will be holding briefings across the country to warn of the dangers of sanctuary policies.
Those detainers request that local law enforcement notify immigration authorities when an illegal immigrant who has been arrested is due to be released from jail, so that they can be picked up by ICE and placed in deportation proceedings. Albence said that last year they deported more than 145,000 criminal illegal immigrants, including 10,000 gang members, and that about 70 percent of arrests ICE conducts occur via a detainer from a local or state jail or prison.
(…)
Albence pointed to a national ICE operation this week in which officers made 1,300 arrests. He said that of those, officers arrested nearly 200 who could have been arrested in jail if detainers had been honored.
Of those arrested, three had convictions for murder or manslaughter and 100 had convictions for sexual crimes — with nearly half of those crimes involving children. Meanwhile, 70 had convictions for drug crimes and 328 had convictions for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. – READ MORE