The consequences of sanctuary policies for illegal aliens

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement fired back Wednesday after the state of Colorado prohibited police from keeping immigrants [illegal aliens] in custody at ICE’s request, calling the new law “dangerous” and suggesting it will lead to violence....

“By signing Colorado’s House Bill 1124, the state has codified a dangerous policy that deliberately obstructs our country’s lawful immigration system, protects serious criminal alien offenders, and undermines public safety,” ICE said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.

As a result of the new law, “criminals will now be returned to the streets throughout Colorado,” the agency said. “This is an irresponsible law that will undoubtedly have tragic future consequences at the expense of innocent citizens, lawful residents and visitors.”...

Tom Homan, the former head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said politicians who enact sanctuary policies on the premise of protecting immigrant communities end up doing the complete opposite.

“Because if ICE can get the bad guy in a county jail, it’s done and it’s over,” Homan told The Epoch Times on March 14.

“But when they release a bad guy from the county jail … now, ICE has to go find that guy, which means they’re going to go into the community … where they’re probably going to find others, others that weren’t even on their radar. Number two, when you release a criminal alien back to the street, he’s going to reoffend in the very community in which he lives—the immigrant community.”...

A detainer is a request for an illegal alien to be held until an ICE agent can take custody, or for the jail to notify ICE when an illegal alien is to be released from custody....

“I dare any of these politicians to go to the immigrant community and ask them this one simple question: ‘Where would you rather have ICE operating—in our county jail or in your neighborhood?’ What do you think they’re going to say?” Homan said.

“You can’t say ‘prioritize criminals, but we’re going to be a sanctuary and you can’t come in our jail.’ You can’t say it both ways. It just don’t make sense.”

In fiscal 2018, ICE arrested more than 138,000 aliens with criminal histories. Of all arrests made, 87 percent were of convicted criminals or those with pending criminal charges....

California paved the way in 2018 when it enacted sweeping sanctuary legislation, but at least 180 cities and counties across the country have similar policies.

Other states that have sanctuary policies include Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, and Vermont...

For ICE, access to jails and being told when criminal aliens are about to be released are matters of safety and efficiency. The agency has 6,000 agents in the country to find and remove immigration violators, especially criminals, gang members, and potential terrorists.

“It’s simple math. It’s operational necessity. Because one officer can sit in a county jail and process 10 criminal aliens a day,” Homan said. “But when you release those 10 criminal aliens a day, now we’ve got to send a whole team … to arrest somebody on their turf, who has access to who-knows-what weapons. So we’ve got to send a lot more agents in that area to do the same job a few used to do in the county jail. So it doesn’t make sense.”