The Trump administration Monday opened a war on so-called “sanctuary cities,” claiming that they regularly release violent criminal illegal immigrants onto the streets where they go on to commit more crimes and jeopardize public safety.
In a new report from the Department of Homeland Security, the administration identified 118 cities and jurisdictions that have legally declared themselves “sanctuaries,” and revealed that in just one seven day period, 206 illegal criminals were released, including those charged with murder, rape, gun violence, wife beating and sex abuse.
“There is a clear public safety issue here,” said a senior DHS official.
Officials said that as the department steps up its campaign to deport criminal illegals, the numbers will “increase tremendously.”
President Trump has vowed to cut funding to the jurisdictions that ignore requests from the enforcement division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for access to criminal illegals held in jails. The “detainer request” typically lasts 48 hours and is a step toward deportation.
“When a jurisdiction declines to honor an ICE detainer or request for notification, a criminal alien is released into the community, where he or she has the opportunity to commit additional crimes, rather than being safely detained and processed for removal by ICE,” said the weekly DHS report that was requested by a recent Trump executive order.
It was the first “Weekly Declined Detainer Outcome Report.” It is shown below.
For perspective, DHS said most detainers are respected. The 206 refused were out of 3,083 requested. When it was suggested that the 206 is a small percentage, a DHS official pointed to the “very significant” impact those 206 had on their victims. “Most criminals are not one-time offenders. So there is a clear public risk,” said the official.
Many of the cities, notably New York, Philadelphia and Chicago, have doubled down on their policies of refusing ICE requests and releasing the criminal illegals. The policies are generally in liberal areas of the country that are concerned the federal government is wrongly targeting illegals and breaking up the families of those in the United States without permission.
To fight that sympathetic view, the DHS report focused on the national crime wave the illegals have caused, and provided some case studies of the problem, among them:
— Milton Berrera-Lopez was released from local custody when a detainer lodged with Philadelphia authorities was not honored. The Guatemalan national has a previous conviction for two counts of indecent exposure involving minors.
— Estivan Rafael Marques Velasquez, a self-admitted MS-13 gang member, was released from New York City custody with an active ICE detainer in place.
— Ramon Aguirre Ochoa was deported in May 2009. In 2015, he was arrested on domestic aggravated assault charges in Philadelphia. The charges were dismissed, despite ICE filing a detainer to take custody and remove him from the country again. Philadelphia ignored that detainer and released Aguirre Ochoa back into the community. He was arrested again in Philadelphia on July 26, 2016, and charged with involuntary sexual intercourse, unlawful contact with a minor, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, indecent assault on person less than 13, indecent exposure, and simple assault.
The most famous may be the one Trump focused on during the election, the murder of tourist Kate Steinle on a San Francisco pier by an illegal immigrant released by San Franciso authorities despite being deported multiple times.
ICE officials have stepped up their criticism of sanctuary cities. Last week, for example, ICE said it had arrested 248 illegals let go by cities including Philadelphia and said, “In the Philadelphia area, ICE arrested several at large criminal aliens in which the agency had issued detainers but the City of Philadelphia failed to honor them and released the individuals from custody — a situation that puts the public at unnecessary risk.”
And the pressure might be working. DHS officials said in a background call with reporters Monday that some of the sanctuaries are starting to be more cooperative. “Some have come back to the table,” said one official.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
