‘Very Easy’ for Federal Government to Require Compliance With ICE Detainers_ Former Immigration

Joining us now to discuss this further is Andrew Arthur, fellow in law and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies and former immigration judge. It's good to see you. Starting us off, I want to talk about this statement that Trump made during this rally. Trump said, quote, I will ask Congress to pass a law outlawing sanctuary cities nationwide, and we will bring down the full weight of the federal government on any jurisdiction that refuses to cooperate with ICE and Border Patrol. What do you think about that? Is that possible? Yeah, no, it's definitely possible. A lot of the states receive money from the federal government, and yet they are still sanctuary jurisdictions. They refuse to comply with ICE detainers, and in fact, they refuse to assist ICE at all. When I was a young trial attorney 30 years ago in San Francisco, immigration authorities would regularly go through the local jails and find criminal aliens and put them into removal proceedings. But ever since about 2014, a number of jurisdictions have declared themselves to be sanctuaries or initiated sanctuary policies that stymie immigration enforcement. That's a particularly big issue in North Carolina where President Trump was speaking, because we have seven counties in the state that are sanctuary jurisdictions, and the governor recently vetoed a bill that would have barred counties from being sanctuaries in the state. So yeah, this is a significant issue, especially in the Tar Heel State. As you mentioned, Andrew, you're down there in North Carolina. Can you elaborate a little more? How big of an issue are sanctuary cities there right now? So there are 100 counties in North Carolina, and seven of them, including Wake, Durham, and Orange, which are up in the Research Triangle, and Mecklenburg, which is the city of Charlotte, have sanctuary city policies. But most of the state is rural. Most of the state supports immigration enforcement. And so this is really a political issue pitting those working class voters against the elites who live in the major cities in the state. And many of those rural working class voters are big Trump supporters. So he's definitely playing to the crowd when he makes announcements like this. So what exactly is the legality of banning sanctuary cities? How is that going to work? So it would be very easy via federal law for Congress and the president to direct every local jurisdiction in the United States to comply with ICE detainers. If ICE identifies an individual, a criminal alien, who's in a local jail, they put a detainer on them. But a lot of these sanctuary jurisdictions just ignore those detainers, and they'll release aliens who have criminal records back into the public rather than turning them over to ICE. If there were a federal law that would require them to turn those individuals over, it would make immigration enforcement a lot easier. It's also important to note that states and localities receive billions in federal funding every year, and it's only fair to ask the question, well, if the federal government's going to pay for local services, shouldn't those localities also comply with federal law? So that's really what this comes down to. Okay, and Andrew, staying on the topic of these illegal immigrants with criminal records, Trump also did mention, quote, within two years, there will not be one single foreign criminal gang operating in North Carolina or anywhere else. That's a pretty big promise there. Do you see that happening within two years? Yeah, I mean, if President Trump were to be elected again, and were he to have enough congressional support, it would be very easy to dismantle these gangs. The money, the crime that they commit, that's the lifeblood of these gangs. And if there were sufficient support from state and local governments to actually break these gangs, one, the community would be a whole lot safer because most of these criminals prey on other immigrants. But two, we would be able to arrest the leaders and drive the rest of them out of the United States. There are already laws on the books that the Biden-Harris administration could use today that would enable us to remove criminal aliens from the United States. And yet DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has put restrictions on ICE officers in enforcing those laws. So this would be a sea change, but it's one that is very easy to do. And in fact, not too long ago, criminal immigrant gangs couldn't get a toehold in the United States because those laws were so effective. And Andrew, what exactly are the numbers we're seeing right now in terms of sanctuary city laws and crimes and criminals? What are we seeing there? So yeah, there are hundreds of them all across the United States, and some of them are unintentional sanctuaries. They don't really understand what they're required to do by federal law, what they're allowed to do by state and federal law. And there's an active movement right now to issue guidance to those localities so they know what they're supposed to do. In fact, Virginia Attorney General Jason Yares, just a couple of weeks back, issued guidance to the local sheriffs in the Commonwealth of Virginia, telling them that they do have the authority to communicate with ICE, that they do have the ability to let ICE know when criminals are going to be released. Apparently, a lot of very poorly reasoned federal court decisions have muddied the waters on this. So it's important that officials like Meniaris give guidance to the localities that want to cooperate with ICE, that want to get dangerous criminals off of their streets. So you're going to see this become a bigger and bigger issue, particularly given the spread of gangs like Trender Aragua from Venezuela in cities like Aurora, Colorado, and other jurisdictions across the country. So this is an alien issue. It's appropriate for former President Trump to bring it up on the campaign trail. Hopefully, we will hear his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, talk about the importance of getting criminal aliens off the streets as well. All right, Andrew, before we leave, very quickly, I love that you bring up Kamala Harris. What exactly has the Vice President's policy been so far on sanctuary city laws? And what are the voters in your state saying right now? So with respect to her position on sanctuary laws, she really hasn't stated one. She hasn't put anything at all out there with respect to facilitating ICE enforcement. But we do know that in the past, she called for re-envisioning ICE, turning it away from the law enforcement, the agency that it is, more of a social service agency. And with respect to what voters in my state think about it, I get about three mail pieces a day, and sanctuary cities features prominently in each one of them. So at least the people who are calling the political shots think that this is a big issue for voters in North Carolina. Well, a lot to look out for there, Andrew Arthur, former immigration judge. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you for having me, Fiona.