Rejecting Detainers, Endangering Communities

The fatal shooting of Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco by an illegal alien with seven felony convictions and five prior deportations has brought national attention to the huge public safety price paid by communities when local and state law enforcement agencies do not comply with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers or notifications.  A new report by the Center for Immigration Studies reveals that state and local sanctuary policies caused the release of more than 8,000 criminal alien offenders sought by ICE for deportation in 276 jurisdictions around the country over an eight-month period in 2014.

ICE records, obtained by the Center through a FOIA request, showed that sixty-three percent of the individuals freed by local authorities had serious prior criminal histories or were labeled a public safety concern, but were released anyway.  One-fourth of the aliens already had a felony conviction or charge.

Nearly 1,900 of the released offenders subsequently were arrested for another crime within that eight-month period, accumulating 7,491 new charges in total, within a short time after their release. More than 1,000 (60 percent) of these individuals were not re-arrested by ICE but remained at large ...

Vaughan [Director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies] says, “The problem of sanctuaries is likely to get worse now that the Obama administration has ended the Secure Communities program and given agencies free rein to ignore ICE detainers and notifications under the new Priority Enforcement Program.” ...

View the entire report at: http://cis.org/ignoring-detainers-endangering-communities