Acting ICE Director: Cities Regret Releasing Migrants, Now Looking to Change 'Sanctuary' Policies
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director P.J. Lechleitner said in an interview that some cities are regretting releasing detained migrant criminals and are seeking to change “sanctuary” policies, according to NBC News.
Many left-leaning cities and counties have avoided working with ICE in recent years, at times leading to the releasing illegal immigrants who are charged with violent crimes, NBC News reported. However, Lechleitner stated that some blue cities are looking to change course.
Democrat-led cities’ lack of cooperation stems from the fact that jurisdictions are concerned that reporting to ICE could inhibit criminal investigations, according to NBC News. The progressive leadership has argued that migrants would be afraid to report crimes to the police in fear of getting deported.
“For many, many years, certain states and jurisdictions just have been really reticent about dealing with us because of the civil immigration piece of it,” Lechleitner told NBC News.
Lechleitner said that ICE has been pushing for better cooperation with blue cities for years.
“You’ve seen some examples of this, where some individuals, unfortunately, were encountered by local law enforcement and because of the policies put in place, either at the state or local level, they weren’t allowed to notify immigration authorities … and all of a sudden you have people being released and reoffending,” Lechleitner explained.
“We don’t want that. We want to make sure that public safety threats are appropriately mitigated,” Lechleitner said.
On Wednesday, a local news outlet found through an investigation that Maryland judges in a “sanctuary” jurisdiction gave lenient sentences to illegal immigrants charged with sex crimes, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported this week. Some of the illegal immigrants investigated had been repeatedly deported and charged with sex crimes.
A pro-sanctuary city congresswoman delivered a letter to ICE on Wednesday complaining that deportation officers did not give notice to state or local authorities before making arrests, the DCNF reported this week. The congresswoman complained about issues involving an ICE raid in her district.
Lechleitner told NBC News that ICE can arrest released immigrants, but tracking them down is difficult at times and can put the public at risk if they are arrested in communities.
The jurisdictions that refused to tell ICE when they released undocumented immigrants from jail are now working on ways they will be able to work with ICE in the future like providing advance notice before criminal migrants are released, NBC News reported.
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