California Police Frustrated with Sanctuary Laws Blocking ICE Cooperation

"In a bizarre and apparently unbalanced rant, [Rep.] Luis Gutierrez, D-Illinois, screamed at Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen saying that she was a liar, and that a wall would have led to the death of baby Jesus because Mary and Joseph would not have been able to flee to Egypt with Jesus to escape Herod's killers. Thank God, loudmouth, disrespectful bully Gutierrez is a Democrat congressman and not a Christian clergyman or Bible teacher for children."

A California sheriff’s deputies found themselves being led on a real-life dramatic car chase earlier this week by an illegal immigrant killer. That police-chase is just one more episode of repeat offenders who are in the U.S. illegally.  “State and local cops in California are becoming more and more frustrated with their state’s sanctuary laws forbidding them from assisting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents,” according to Rita Marrano, a former police psychologist.

“Forcing police officers from ignoring the criminal activities of criminal aliens is not something we wish to do in the United States. What California has done is created a new classification for the criminal justice system. Remember the Waco, Texas massacre in which 87 men, women and children were filled by federal agents and not one person was punished for that horrible example of government brutality? Imagine is that occurred with a facility with illegal aliens… It would have never happened to begin with,” said Dr. Marrano.

Tulare County (California) Sheriff Mike Boudreaux’s comments came following the death of 36-year-old Gustavo Garcia, who sheriff’s deputies claim embarked on a one-man, ‘reign of terror’ robbing a grocery store, shooting and killing a victim, and taking potshots at buildings before crashing he crashed while driving a truck he stole. Garcia’s day-long crime spree that began Sunday in the Fresno area also left five victims wounded, including one critically wounded, and police officers suspect Garcia was involved in an additional murder there.

During the chase that ended on Monday in the crash that killed Garcia, he drove on  the wrong side of the road at speeds reaching up to 100 mph. During his flight from police, Garcia hit four other cars.

He appeared to have struck the four vehicles intentionally, police said.

“We are very frustrated with the fact that the way the laws are set up currently [so] that law enforcement’s hands are tied. In the past, Garcia, who had been in police custody shortly before his deadly rampage, would have been handed over to ICE in cooperation with them without the controversy such federal-state cooperation now brings,” said Sheriff Boudreaux.

Meanwhile, in reaction to the same killing spree and other violent crimes committed by illegal immigrants in California, One of that state’s lawmakers is angrily calling for a commonsense  change to the Democrat’s and Gov. Jerry Brown’s state sanctuary law that ordered local law enforcement chiefs and sheriffs from cooperating with federal immigration officials after cops said a twice-deported man living in the United States illegally went on a daylong crime spree that included a murder.

“Democrats actually lie to Americans saying illegally entering the U.S. is a violation and not really a crime. That’s baloney… it is a crime especially after you are deported and then you return. It’s punishable by up to 20-years in federal prison,” said attorney and former prosecutor Peter H. Benninger.

Deportation and illegal reentry cases both involve violating U.S. immigration laws. However, while initial deportation cases are resolved by judges in immigration court (the Executive Office for Immigration Review, or EOIR), illegal reentry cases are resolved by judges in the higher federal court system. The reason for this difference is that illegal reentry is not only an immigration violation, but a federal crime (a felony) that can carry severe consequences.

Assemblyman Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, believes Senate Bill 54 {a/k/a California Values Act) needs to permit local law enforcement departments to adhere to detainer requests from  (ICE) personnel, FOX 26 in Fresno reported.

“When those who say [Bill] 54 makes accommodation for that, they’re really not saying it like it is,” Patterson, a former mayor of Fresno, told Fox. “It’s conflicting, it’s confusing and it essentially says you can’t talk to ICE on those misdemeanors,” Patterson complained.

Although a large number of law enforcement officers favor cooperating with ICE, some — especially liberal-left police chiefs — are not on board.

For example, Sheriff Alex Villanueva, head of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office, told county officials Tuesday that he eliminated the presence of immigration officials from county jails and plans to limit the crimes that lead jail authorities to cooperate with ICE.

“We are going to physically remove ICE from the county jails,” Villanueva told the county Board of Supervisors.

Typically, the sentences for illegal reentry are:

1. a fine and up to two years’ imprisonment for reentering after previous unlawful presence, or after being granted voluntary departure or ordered deported by an immigration judge,
2. a fine and up to ten years in prison if you were deported for committing three or more misdemeanor crimes involving drugs, crimes against a person, or a felony (other than an aggravated felony), and
3. a fine and up to 20 years in prison if you were deported for an aggravated felony conviction.