Trump administration seeks to shame sanctuary cities

Some jails and police agencies around the USA have opted in recent years not to cooperate with immigration authorities on detainers. “If we had a name of who it was, we could do a more thorough search”.

In the first of what will be weekly reports, the Department of Homeland Security released a list of instances in which local law enforcement agencies declined requests (known as detainers) from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold arrested immigrants – undocumented or, in some cases, not – in jail until they could be deported. The weekly detainer report is intended “to better inform the public regarding the public safety threats associated with sanctuary jurisdictions”, he said in his executive order.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who’s seeking legislation that cuts off state funding grants to cities, counties, and college campuses that block officers from enforcing federal immigration laws, took note of DHS’s report.

Since Miranda-Olivares’ case, Sheriff Garrett said all OR counties have stopped honoring ICE detainer requests.

Metro called the report unfair. A spokesman for her office, Major Wes Priddy, says Travis County’s numbers appear higher than normal because the report includes the day Hernandez’s new policy went into effect, and immigration officials knew in advance which detainers would be rejected.

Other jurisdictions have passed local ordinances barring cooperation with ICE.

Former Harvey County Sheriff T Walton told KAKE News in July 2015 he simply followed the law when it comes to holding suspects for ICE.

The report does not note the outcome of the detainer requests sent to Clark County.

DHS also lists the 10 counties – none of them in California – that regularly do not comply with such requests that had the most declined detainers, and includes a table listing scores of counties, cities and agencies that have policies to not cooperate with ICE in various ways, including whether it’s a law, regulation or policy. The new administration has instructed them to resume, and the report predicted the national total will rise in coming weeks.

ICE uses detainers to request local law enforcement detain illegal immigrants who have been convicted or even just charged with a crime.

That report from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement says out of 206 denials nationwide in a single week, 142 were in Travis County.

Montgomery County ranked fourth along with a county in Washington state.

The Sheriff of Boulder County agrees.

While immigrant women facing domestic abuse can qualify for work authorization and temporary legal status under the Violence Against Women Act, only a certain amount of visas are available each year. Since early January, department officials have said, it began running the 48-hour detainer clock after notifying ICE at booking when a person was identified as a potential immigration violator.

Monday, Councilman Zeke Cohen introduced a resolution to the council, asking for a more humane way to deal with these issues.