Henry Sanchez-Milian wasn’t supposed to be stalking the halls of Rockville High School on the morning of March 21. In fact, he wasn’t supposed to be in the country at all. The 18-year-old from Guatemala entered the U.S. illegally last summer, was briefly detained by immigration officials, and was then released. This is what happens to many illegal immigrants and does not amount to much of a disincentive for others who wish to come here.
Sanchez-Milian, living with his father in Montgomery County, Md., enrolled as a freshman at the school. He is now charged with raping a 14-year-old girl there.
This incident was no doubt far from the minds of the Democratic majority in the Maryland House of Delegates last week when they passed the Maryland Law Enforcement and Trust Act. This would bar state and local law enforcement under most circumstances from helping federal officials seeking illegal immigrants, including requests to detain inmates for deportation.
The law would make Maryland a “sanctuary state” and would make crimes such as that of which Sanchez-Milian is accused more likely. Gov. Larry Hogan has, sensibly, vowed to veto the bill if it gets to his desk.
It’s been nearly half a century since Berkeley, Calif., became the first locality to be named a sanctuary for illegal immigrants. Since then, more than 400 states, towns, counties and college campuses have limited the ways law enforcement officers may cooperate with federal immigration officials.
President Trump’s election seems to have prompted an increase in such policies, and a concomitant rise in high-profile incidents in which illegal immigrants prey on innocent people.
The California legislature is considering a bill similar to Maryland’s that would block federal immigration officials from local jails and state databases. It would ban state agencies from asking for anyone’s immigration status and from detaining people for deportation.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell says this law is more likely to hurt than help immigrants. If illegal immigrants cannot be picked up from jails, he reasons, they’ll have to be apprehended on the street, thus sowing apprehension in immigrant communities and making people less likely to cooperate with law enforcement.
Thirty-four counties and cities are suing the Trump administration over its executive order taking funding away from jurisdictions that refuse to help federal immigration enforcement. But even Obama administration Attorney General Loretta Lynch notified sanctuary cities that they must comply with a law enabling the exchange of immigration information among various government agencies. Lynch warned that noncompliance would mean funds from the Justice Department would be stanched.
Under a Supreme Court ruling, the feds cannot force state and local governments to enforce federal law. But border enforcement is a legitimate role of the federal government, and the president has prosecutorial discretion in deciding how to enforce the law.
To many liberals, sanctuary policies are a way to stop law enforcement terrorizing immigrants and tearing families apart. But incidents such as the alleged rape of a teenage schoolgirl make one wonder whom sanctuary advocates think they are sworn to protect.
