A Texas sheriff told House lawmakers Thursday the existence of sanctuary policies in more than 300 cities and counties around the United States play a subordinate but integral part in the growing opioid epidemic.
“These sanctuary cities are a cog in the expanding opioid crisis, as evidenced in the recent drug bust in Boston,” Jackson County Sheriff A.J. Louderback testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security Thursday morning.
“Law enforcement faces a constant flow of opioids, trafficked humans, criminal aliens to our communities. Nowhere is it clearer than sanctuary cities, which is creating a safe haven for criminality,” Louderback added. “Wherever sanctuary policies exist, your law enforcement is not able or permitted to cooperate, communicate, or partner to fight crime as a team or honor our laws of this country.”
Detective Nick Rogers, a 32-year veteran of the Denver Police Department who has spent the past two decades in its narcotics investigations unit, said he first saw heroin on the streets of Denver in 2006 and watched it grow into a monumental problem that law enforcement has essentially been banned from attempting to gain control of due to a recent sanctuary city ordinance.
“I began to see a disturbing trend. I started to arrest the same parties twice. For example, working in an undercover capacity, I bought heroin from an illegal alien, arrested him, charged him with distribution of a controlled substance, and had an immigration detainer placed on him, believing this would end that suspect’s involvement in the narcotics trade. Several months, to a year or so later, I arrested the same suspect who was now wanted for failing to appear on the first case, and now in possession of heroin a second time,” Rogers, now president of the Denver Police Protective Association, which represents 1,500 Denver police officers, said in his opening statement.
“The only change was the suspect was now in possession of a new fake ID, with a different name. This became common practice in my unit, as well as other narcotics units around the city: arresting illegal aliens for possession of large amounts of heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine who were now living under fake names, all the while being wanted on failing to appear on other drug charges,” he added.
Rogers said his members “feel they’re being handcuffed” because they cannot report an illegal immigrant in policy custody to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement without risking termination, 10 months in jail, and a $999 fine for doing so.
