ICE: Sanctuary city L.A. frees 100 criminal aliens daily

ICE Acting Associate Executive Director of Detention and Removal Operations Timothy S. Robbins went before United States Congress Tuesday telling lawmakers that 75 to 100 illegal immigrants were handed over his agency every day before the controversial law, while less than five a day are currently being turned in.

This can’t go on …

Robbins explained why legislators need to take action.

“He said the irony is that sanctuary communities say they want ICE to focus on deporting criminals – but by refusing to cooperate at their jails, they’re actually pushing the agency’s 6,800 deportation officers out into communities, meaning they are more likely to pick up rank-and-file illegal immigrants while arresting fewer criminals,” The Washington Times recounted from Capitol Hill.

Robbins stressed how cities such as L.A. releasing illegals forces ICE to require a larger budget to pay for additional agents on deportation teams, who must be sent into communities to recover released criminals – instead of just staffing one or two officers needed to recover detained immigrants held in custody.

“There’s a true cost – ICE enforcement will no longer be in the jails,” he emphasized. “It’ll be in the communities – the same communities these sanctuary policies are trying to keep ICE out of. … I will have to send officers out onto the street, which is less safe for officers, the community and the subject at large.”

Problems have been rife in the Golden State ever since it became the first official sanctuary state.

“California has one of the most expansive sanctuary state laws in the nation,” Breitbart News reported. “California law enforcement officials have refused to turn at least 5,000 criminal illegal aliens over to ICE agents for arrest and deportation. Instead, these illegal aliens were released back into communities.”

U.S. citizens have been victims of brutal murders as a result of sanctuary policies.

“In one case last year, a 47-year-old illegal alien from El Salvador sought sanctuary in California after being deported from the U.S. six times,” Breitbart’s John Binder noted. “In September 2018, the illegal alien was charged with murdering three men – including 39-year-old Steven Cruze Jr. – by beating them to death with a baseball bat.”

No refuge for citizens

A number of Senate Democrats appeared shocked when Robbins refuted their belief that sanctuary cities were handing over dangerous criminals while only refusing to hand over immigrants with minor infractions.

“Are you saying that local law enforcement – if they knew they had a violent offender in custody – that they would release those persons?” Sen. Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii) questioned Robbins, according to the Times.

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying,” the top ICE official responded. “I have many examples.”

Not believing police would actually release dangerous felons back onto the streets, Hirono asked the same question again.

“So your testimony is that the local law enforcement releases violent offenders?” she repeated.

“That’s what we’re talking about today,” Robbins confirmed.

Such instances were recounted by the Times.

“Those … types of cases include: an illegal immigrant in Maryland accused of attempted murder who was released in defiance of ICE and who now stands accused of a gang killing, and an MS-13 member in Washington state who notched an increasingly severe criminal record while being shielded from ICE, and who now stands accused of a horrific gang murder,” the Times’ Stephen Dinan recalled.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) defended the sanctuary policy, insisting the case where Kate Steinle was murdered by a criminal alien in 2015 was solved while arguing that similar incidents will no longer take place, but Robbins disagreed.

He contended the sanctuary problem “hasn’t been fixed,” before giving sobering statistics out of the L.A. basin, noting that ICE received anywhere from 75 to 100 migrants slated for deportation daily from local jails – a number that has decreased to about five a day since California enforced its sanctuary law in 2018.

“All things being equal, there are 70 to 100 criminal aliens hitting the streets in Los Angeles alone,” Robbins informed. “That is one city within the United States. This is a significant problem that has been overlooked for too long.”

A vocal advocate for immigrant rights, Senate Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), assured that everyone in Congress wants there to be better cooperation with federal agents, but he defended the releases by accusing President Donald Trump and ICE of “poisoning the well,” so cities like Chicago won’t even communicate with ICE.

“The president scares the h--- out of these people that are undocumented,” Durbin claimed. “At this point, this president’s declared war on immigrants.”

His open-borders activism then shined through.

“Durbin said the solution is legislation to clear the slate and legalize most current illegal immigrants – permanently shielding them from deportation,” Dinan pointed out. “He pointed to a Chicago case where he said ICE attempted to deport a grandmother, saying that was a major image problem for the agency.”

That argument was then shot down.

“Robbins countered that grandmothers are not his focus and 70% of his deportation budget is spent on culling criminals out of jails,” Dinan recounted. “He said it used to be higher, before the sanctuary city explosion ended cooperation with so many of those jails.”

Stand against sanctuaries

Former ICE Acting Director Tom Homan said SB54 puts politics above safety and criticized one cop for his immigration activism.

"This sheriff in L.A. County: he's on the outside looking in, so, he's even walked away from his own organization on this," Homan explained on Fox and Friends, arguing criminal aliens threaten sanctuary cities.

"This sheriff is taking a political stance – he forgot the oath he's taken,” Homan continued. “He stopped being a cop – [he] became a politician, because he's not protecting these communities as much as he could."

It was discussed how legislation is up for passage to make it mandatory for police to cooperate with ICE, and how the 2020 election will determine whether police are supported or not.

“[While the Justice Department is still fighting sanctuary state laws], all law enforcement across this country knows that this president … has their back," Homan concluded. "We've got the right guy. These people running for the Democratic nomination – every one of them – they want sanctuary cities, they want open borders, they want to abolish ICE.”