On October 1, Fairfax County, Virginia, issued a statement reassuring the open-borders Left that it was indeed a sanctuary county.
It seems that an illegal alien was involved in a vehicle crash and was cited for driving without a license. When the FCPD officer on the scene ran the alien’s name, he found that the alien was wanted by ICE for failure to appear at a deportation hearing in immigration court.
An ICE officer was nearby, and he immediately responded to take custody of the fugitive illegal alien. In any sane world, we would applaud local law enforcement for helping to restore the rule of law in immigration.
But not in Fairfax County. Instead, FCPD Chief Roessler suspended the officer. Chief Roessler said the officer “violated our longstanding policy and deprived a person of their freedom, which is unacceptable.” Unacceptable? When an illegal alien violates our country’s laws, ignores the orders of an immigration court, becomes a fugitive, then crashes his car endangering the lives of others, that is precisely when the alien should be deprived of his freedom and deported.
But Chief Roessler wasn’t finished. His statement continued: “Our county is one of the most diverse counties in the nation and no one should have the perception that FCPD is acting as a civil immigration agent for ICE. This matter damages our reputation….” He suspended the officer saying, “It is my duty to enforce our FCPD – and Fairfax County – policies and hold all accountable for their actions.” But he won’t hold the illegal alien accountable for his actions.
This idiotic statement epitomizes the politically correct law enforcement drivel that is all too common today. And it makes a mockery of the rule of law.
Chief Roessler’s statement also confirms that he and Fairfax County are violating federal law. 8 U.S.C. 1373 makes it illegal for a county to “in any way restrict” its officers from sharing information about illegal aliens with ICE.
There are now more than a million “absconders” on the loose in America today. These are illegal aliens who had their day in immigration court and lost. Then, instead of obeying the removal order of the immigration court, they abscond – disappearing into the fabric of American society.
ICE doesn’t have the ability or resources to patrol the streets and find those alien absconders alone. But with the help of local law enforcement they can. Every day, hundreds of alien fugitives commit traffic violations and are stopped by local police. Others are in traffic accidents like the one in Fairfax County. And others are arrested for a variety of different crimes. Every one of them should be immediately turned over to ICE.
But sanctuary counties like Fairfax County turn them loose. Unfortunately, there are now approximately 340 sanctuary cities and counties in the United States.
These sanctuary cities and counties cost the rest of us taxpayers a great deal. Processing an illegal alien through the immigration court system costs thousands of dollars in man hours, court costs, and detention costs. That money is wasted if the illegal alien becomes a fugitive and is sheltered by a sanctuary county like Fairfax County.
Those sanctuary policies also endanger U.S. citizens. ICE recently studied the impact of New York City’s sanctuary policy. In a three-month period from January to April of 2018, New York City released from custody 440 illegal aliens that ICE wanted to detain. Within that period, 40 of the illegal aliens were subsequently arrested again for other offenses.
It’s time to put some teeth in the federal law banning sanctuary policies. Those sanctuary cities and counties are wasting our federal dollars. Consequently, they don’t deserve a penny of our continued federal support.
In June 2017, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass a bill denying a broad array of federal funds to sanctuary jurisdictions. But the Senate never voted on it, thanks to the failure of Senate Republican leadership and the opposition of Senate Democrats. It’s time to take action. Sanctuary policies need to end.
Kris W. Kobach served as Secretary of State of Kansas during 2011-19. An expert in immigration law and policy, he coauthored the Arizona SB-1070 immigration law and represented in federal court the 10 ICE agents who sued to stop Obama’s 2012 executive amnesty. He is now General Counsel of We Build the Wall and is a Republican candidate for Kansas’s open U.S. Senate in 2020. His website is kriskobach.com.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.