Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director P.J. Lechleitner said in an interview that certain Democrat-controlled “sanctuary” cities now regret going against ICE policies and releasing so many detained migrant criminals.
In the past, many cities have been reluctant to work with ICE, refusing to turn over illegal aliens convicted of crimes - even violent ones - over to ICE for immigration proceedings, instead releasing criminal aliens back into community streets despite the fact that they shouldn’t be in the country and have already broken laws. However, as reported by NBC News, many of these places have recently been looking to change their lax policies in the wake of a recent influx of illegal aliens.
Lechleitner complained that ICE has been eager for more cooperation from leftist states and cities for a long time.
“For many, many years, certain states and jurisdictions just have been really reticent about dealing with us because of the civil immigration piece of it,” Lechleitner told NBC News. “You’ve seen some examples of this, where some individuals, unfortunately, were encountered by local law enforcement and because of the policies put in place, either at the state or local level, they weren’t allowed to notify immigration authorities … and all of a sudden you have people being released and reoffending. We don’t want that. We want to make sure that public safety threats are appropriately mitigated.”
Related: Previously Deported Honduran Man Sexually Assaults Child
ICE can arrest released immigrants, Lechleitner explained, but tracking them down is often very hard and can put the public at risk. Now, many jurisdictions that refused to cooperate with ICE before are working on ways to cooperate with ICE in the future to get criminal migrants out of their communities.
It is encouraging to hear that at least some blue states are waking up to the very real and problematic effects of their liberal immigration laws, acknowledging their mistakes, and changing some policies.