Sanctuary Laws Needlessly Expose the Public To Violent Crime
That's why Attorney General Pam Bondi's first act in the Trump administration was to sue Illinois.
The Trump administration has sued Illinois, Cook County and Chicago over their sanctuary laws, citing interference with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) efforts to deport illegal immigrants. The sanctuary laws needlessly expose the public to violent crimes committed by illegals by forbidding local authorities from cooperating with ICE.
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Welcoming City Ordinance Welcomes Crime by Illegals
Just two weeks ago, two illegals were charged with the January 26 murder of George Levin in Chicago’s Norwood Park neighborhood. The investigation, one detective said, took on an added sense of urgency with police handcuffed by the city’s sanctuary law—its Welcoming City Ordinance.
Police expressed concerns early in the investigation that they would have to release the two suspects after the standard 48 hours if they failed to uncover enough evidence to charge them. Absent the city’s sanctuary law, the police could turn the suspects—any criminal suspects in the city illegally—over to ICE for detention if the case takes longer than 48 hours to investigate.
In the Levin case, the police gathered sufficient evidence early enough to charge Jefferson Ubilla-Delgado, a Venezuelan, and Geiderwuin Bello Morales, an Ecuadorian, with the murder. But without the sanctuary law in place, Morales would almost certainly have been in federal custody at the time of the murder. Two weeks before the murder he was arrested on charges of assaulting a victim under the age of 13.
Police reports indicate they released Morales a day after his arrest.
A Chicago police detective familiar with the case, who wished to remain anonymous, said his arrest "certainly should have been grounds for detention and deportation. Of course, it’s impossible to say if that would have prevented the murder, but he would not have been part of it."
An anonymous source at ice ICE confirmed that local law enforcement can turn a suspect over to ICE, which can return them to the local jurisdiction for prosecution if charged with a crime. ICE can hold suspects for weeks. But, again, local officials in sanctuary jurisdictions cannot cooperate with ICE.
“When a crime is committed, ICE rarely knows if it is relying on information from law enforcement,” Don Rosenberg, president of Advocates for Victims of Illegal Alien Crime, said in an email message. “Even if it knows and files a detainer, sanctuary cities ignore them. The best they can do is stake out the jail and have agents surround the place to pick up the perp, but they don’t have the resources to do that.”
Rosenberg, himself the father of a victim killed by an illegal immigrant, added that ICE would prefer that local jurisdictions prosecute their criminals.
“In a perfect world where illegal alien criminals aren’t protected by states and cities, the state would prosecute, and ICE would file a detainer,” he said. “After the state finished with the perp (they served their sentence or were acquitted), they would be turned over to ICE for deportation.”
Sanctuary Jurisdictions Coddle Violent Criminals
In 2015, Jose Inez Garcia- Zarate, a Mexican national, shot and killed 32-year-old Kate Steinle while walking on a San Francisco pier with her father.
Gracia-Zarate “was incarcerated in a prison in California,” Rosenberg noted, “ready to be released when his prison term ended in 2015. ICE was notified, and a time was set to make the transfer. Per policy, ICE looked at Zarate’s record and found an open arrest warrant in San Francisco. It was a minor pot charge, so they called the SF sheriff to see if they wanted him. The sheriff said yes and sent a car to pick him up. ICE filed a new detainer for Zarate after SF was finished with him.”
“They held him for a few weeks,” he continued, “ignored the detainer and then released him. A few weeks later, he killed Kate Steinle.”
Rosenberg said the San Francisco sheriff at the time, Ross Mirkarimi, released Garcia- Zarate. Sheriff Mirkarimi also released Rosenberg's killer—after he served just 43 days.
Rosenberg’s son, Drew, was killed in 2010 when a Honduran national driving without a license plowed into him on his motorcycle. ICE has no obligation to turn suspects back to local authorities. In an interview, Ira Mehlman of the American Federation for Immigration Reform said that in some instances, ICE has deported criminal suspects if they don't trust the local agency to hold them.
“If they turn him over to ICE and never charge the guy with a crime, other than an immigration violation," Mehlman said, "ICE generally can hold him until he's ordered removed. That court process could take years of course, which is why they release low-level offenders.”
The same holds true for some of Chicago’s neighboring jurisdictions.
Trump Takes Corrective Action
Suburban and northwest Indiana counties are wary of turning over inmates awaiting trial to Cook County “for fear that through incompetence or simple error their guy would be bonded out of a Cook County court and not returned to the original county,” the CPD detective said.
“Will County fears the inmate being given a bracelet and released while their detainer is missed," he said. "It makes it very frustrating for CPD officers trying to work the case.”
That's why newly confirmed Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Feb. 6, "We sued today the city of Chicago, we sued the State of Illinois, we sued the Mayor, we sued the Governor. Let me be very clear- if you don't comply with federal law, you're gonna be next!"
(READ MORE: Investigation: Violent Venezuelan Gangs Fueling Illegal Alien Crime Wave in Chicago Using Flood of Dark Money)
