The sanctuary city of Boston, Massachusetts shielded more than 100 criminal illegal aliens from arrest and deportation by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last year, new figures reveal.
Since 2014, Boston has imposed a sanctuary city policy that bans cooperation between law enforcement and ICE agents — effectively ensuring that illegal aliens arrested on local criminal charges are freed back into the community rather than being turned over to the agency.
Under the direction of Mayor Michelle Wu (D), Boston’s sanctuary city policy allowed more than 100 criminal illegal aliens to evade arrest and deportation by ICE agents last year, figures published by Sean Cotter at the Boston Herald show.
Initially, Boston officials claimed that only 12 criminal illegal aliens had been shielded from arrest and deportation in all of 2022 but ICE officials refuted that figure, offering their own and detailing how the city’s law enforcement continues to refuse to work with the agency.
“When law enforcement agencies fail to honor immigration detainers and release serious criminal offenders onto the streets, it undermines ERO’s ability to protect public safety and carry out its mission,” officials with ICE Boston told the Boston Herald.
Meanwhile, Boston Police Department Commissioner doubled down on the city’s sanctuary policy, telling the Boston Herald in a statement:
The Boston Police Department remains committed to the Boston Trust Act and strengthening relationships with all our communities. Boston’s immigrant community should feel safe in reporting crime and in proactively engaging with the Boston Police Department. [Emphasis added]
Nationwide, President Joe Biden’s administration is imposing a so-called “sanctuary country” agenda that has seen ICE dramatically cut the number of detainers issued to request custody of criminal illegal aliens.
In Fiscal Year 2022, ICE agents issued fewer than 79,000 detainers for criminal illegal aliens — a 56 percent decline in the total number of detainers issued by ICE agents compared to Fiscal Year 2018.
DHS has requested custody for fewer than 145,000 illegal aliens arrested for crimes in the U.S. since Biden took office. In comparison, the Trump administration issued 20,000 more ICE detainers in a single year, Fiscal Year 2019, than Biden has throughout his first two years.
The huge drop in ICE detainers issued by DHS suggests that illegal aliens charged with crimes like homicide, kidnapping, robbery, assault, or sexual abuse are staying in the U.S. pending trial, after being convicted, or after being sentenced.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.