Democrat Bob Casey Criticized for Illegal Immigrant Crime ‘Surge’

On March 14, 2017, about 30 miles (52 kilometers) away in Orange, California, a maximum-security unit at Theo Lacy Facility, a county jail that also holds immigrant detainees arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Immigrant detainees sitting in Southeast of Los Angeles. US President Donald Trump’s first budget provides more than US dollars Photo: ROBYN BECK;Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images
In the months after California enacted a historic immigration protection law last year, the number of arrests by federal immigration agents in California prisons fell by nearly a third, according to a new report from the University of Oxford.
However, 40% of police agencies surveyed reported exploiting legal loopholes, outdated law enforcement policies, or outright violation of sanctuary laws to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The book says:
The analysis by San Francisco’s Asian Law Caucus, the pro-immigration civil rights group, and Britain’s Oxford University Center for Criminology was released Wednesday amid renewed debate over Bay Area sanctuary policies and how far law enforcement can go. It was done. Go to legally protect illegal immigrants.
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Santa Clara County law enforcement leaders on Tuesday called on the Board of Supervisors to loosen the county’s sanctuary policy in the wake of the killing of Bambi Larson, 59, who was stabbed to death in her San Jose home last month. . Police arrested Carlos Arevalo Carranza, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, on suspicion of killing Larson. Arevalo-Carranza has a long criminal history, and he has evaded immigration authorities who have repeatedly tried to detain him.
In a letter to regulators, 11 police chiefs, Sheriff Laurie Smith and District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a letter to regulators that inmates charged with or convicted of felonies or violent misdemeanors under the state’s sanctuary law requested the Committee to allow prisons to notify ICE officials about the release of individuals. SB54, Permits. The county prohibits law enforcement from notifying ICE when an inmate is released from custody, or from holding an inmate past their release date for ICE to pick them up.
“Existing policies that allow predatory criminals to evade lawful deportation requests make everyone less safe,” county officials wrote.
FILE – In this Jan. 10, 2018 file photo, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers gather before handing out employment audit notices at a 7-Eleven convenience store in Los Angeles. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has become the face of President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies. But agency officials say their mission is misunderstood. While ICE primarily targets criminals, government data also shows that the agency has significantly stepped up its overall arrests, increasing the number of people arrested for immigration violations alone. There is. And the most frequent conviction was for drunk driving. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, File)
Photo: Chris Carlson, Associated Press
The state’s sanctuary law prohibits local law enforcement officers from assisting federal authorities in detaining or deporting immigrants, except in cases of violence or serious felonies. Still, some law enforcement agencies and conservatives oppose the policy, saying it encourages illegal immigration and allows criminals to avoid prison time. Congress passed the law in 2017 in response to President Trump’s hardline immigration policies.
ICE said allowing the release of illegal immigrants who have committed crimes “puts our communities at potentially avoidable risk.”
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“Families who have lost loved ones to criminal aliens will share in the heartbreaking aftermath they must endure every day because of this irresponsible law,” ICE said in a statement Wednesday. “To be clear, ICE does not expect or want local law enforcement to participate in immigration enforcement in their communities. We look forward to your participation in protecting public safety.”
According to the report, ICE arrests at local jails decreased by 31 percent (985 arrests) in the first five months after SB54 was implemented. The study compared the number of ICE arrests made from January to May 2018 with the same period in 2017, before the law went into effect.
However, the impact of SB54 remains “partial and incomplete” as law enforcement agencies across California continue to share information about illegal immigrants with ICE, the report said.
“Even if there are some failures in enforcement, these laws are incredibly effective at disengaging local law enforcement from ICE,” said co-author and fellow at the Oxford Center for Criminology. says Peter Mancina, who has been researching sanctuary policy in California for about 10 years. .
The report also analyzed public records from 169 law enforcement agencies, including 121 police departments and 48 sheriff’s departments, and found that 68 agencies, or 40 percent, were not complying with the law.
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Dozens of law enforcement agencies have taken advantage of exceptions under SB 54 that allow ICE or Customs to use exceptions if a detainee’s criminal history meets certain requirements or if that information is already publicly available. – Enables Border Patrol to be provided with prisoner release dates. The report said 24 sheriff’s departments across the state posted inmates’ release dates, trial dates and locations, cities of residence, occupations and other personal information.
The California Sheriffs Association and California Police Chiefs Association declined to comment.
The Marin County Sheriff’s Office shared inmate release information with ICE officials before the state’s sanctuary law was approved and will no longer share inmate release information after the law took effect in January 2018. They started posting it on their website, but stopped it last fall. Marin County Sheriff Robert Doyle said the inmates have been charged with or convicted of serious or violent crimes. Doyle said frustration with President Trump’s immigration policies and a meeting with immigrant rights groups in Marin led him to reevaluate the department’s policies.
In San Jose, law enforcement agencies provide a wide range of information to ICE, using “broad and undefined” policy language that allows police to share information with ICE, according to the report. It cites San Jose Police Department policy that requires it to share information with ICE. Regarding people charged with certain drug crimes. The report said this violated the state’s sanctuary law. However, the report does not mention that San Jose police changed this policy in March 2018, two months after the investigation began.
San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia disputes the report’s findings, saying his department does not cooperate with ICE on civilian immigration enforcement, but on human trafficking, gang enforcement, weapons smuggling and money laundering cases. He said he is cooperating with Homeland Security Investigations, the criminal division of ICE. , cybercrime and financial crime.
“We will coordinate our criminal investigation efforts as the community expects of us,” Garcia said in a statement.
Tatiana Sanchez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tatiana.sanchez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TatianaYSanchez
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Tatiana Sanchez
Tatiana Sanchez covers immigration and civil rights for The Chronicle. She began her journalism career in the California desert, where she covered marginalized immigrant communities in the eastern Coachella Valley for the Desert Sun. Her previous reporting has also appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune and, most recently, in the San Jose Mercury News. The Bay Area native earned her master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and her bachelor’s degree from Santa Clara University.
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