Trump Unveils New Strategy to Thwart Sanctuary Cities Protecting Criminal Aliens
Following the U.S. Supreme Court decision to allow President Donald Trump to enforce federal immigration laws in so-called sanctuary cities was a blow to many politicians who appear to favor the “rights” of illegal aliens over the rights of American citizens, police organizations’ officials said on Friday.
The nation’s highest court ruled that Trump’s federal agents have the power to detain people who are facing deportation because of the crimes they committed. Chief Justice John Roberts joined justices Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh in the majority, with the usual Democratic Party appointed judges dissenting.
One of Trump’s key strategies to remove criminal aliens who were not being turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents is to have U.S. Border Patrol officers deployed to “sanctuary” cities in which local politicians are stonewalling immigration enforcement.
The deployment of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents — some of whom underwent tactical training – to parts of the country without borders with Mexico and Canada is the latest move by the Trump administration to “drain the swamp” of those who continuously set up roadblocks to rid the U.S. of criminal aliens.
The acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief said additional forces are needed because people without legal authorization to be in the country are being released from local jails in sanctuary cities and counties before ICE agents can take them into custody.
ICE then has to make “at large arrests” of these immigrants who have been released, Chief of ICE Matthew Albence said in a statement announcing the move.
“This effort requires a significant amount of additional time and resources,” he said. “When sanctuary cities release these criminals back to the street, it increases the occurrence of preventable crimes, and more importantly, preventable victims.”
Albence didn’t say which types of agents are being deployed, but he did report that they would come from varied U.S. locations and would include officers with tactical training that is typically intended to prepare them for potential confrontations with drug and human traffickers, as well as other criminal aliens.
Immigration activists dismiss the latest strategy as a political move by President Trump to please his supporters and intimidate communities that have adopted sanctuary policies to ensure people cooperate with local law enforcement regardless of whether they are in the country illegally or not.
The deployment comes as the president and others in his administration look to increase pressure on a sanctuary city movement that has expanded since he took office.
“It’s been one of the policies that the news media and Democrats have lied about. And continue to lie about: during the Obama years, his administration did much the same as Trump’s Homeland Security Department. The media and Democrats were silent during Obama’s two-terms in the White House,” said Nicholas Shaw, an official from the American Federation of Police.
“Foreign criminals involved in violent felonies are routinely released without bail and never show up for their courtroom appearances. Also, we hear reports on a daily basis about criminal aliens killing, raping or robbing Americans,” Det. Sgt. Shaw added.
Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said moving agents from the border will weaken security there.
“It is truly alarming that President Trump is moving resources away from the border just to ratchet up his cruel immigration agenda, throw meat to his base, and inflict revenge on states that don’t do what he says,” said Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat.
Of course, Rep. Thompson is one of the Democrats who oppose the building of a security wall or fence and other countermeasures.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Justice Department this week filed a lawsuit against New Jersey for prohibiting state and local law enforcement from sharing information about inmates in the U.S. illegally and another Washington state’s King County over a policy that prohibits the Department of Homeland Security from using the King County International Airport-Boeing Field for deportation flights.
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security said it would bar New York residents from trusted traveler programs such as Global Entry because of state law that prohibits immigration agents from accessing motor vehicle records.
Trump has been trying since he took office to punish sanctuary cities. In 2017, Jeff Sessions, then attorney general, said such cities would not receive grant money unless they gave federal immigration authorities access to jails and provide advance notice when someone in the country illegally is about to be released from prison. An Obama appointed federal judge blocked the punishment from being enforced, and the cities got the federal money, much of it used to provide illegal aliens with food, clothing, shelter and healthcare.
