Sanctuary Cities targeted in Latest Immigration Raids
Yesterday “sanctuary” cities were obvious targets for hundreds of arrests in an operation targeting communities where local police and officials have refused perform the federal government’s duty and detain immigrants or otherwise fully cooperate with enforcing this country’s broken immigration laws.
One of the key areas where a lot of these raids were taking place was none other than Los Angeles, a region where several cities and counties have been tagged by justice officials as being so-called sanctuaries locations for undocumented or out of status immigrants. Sanctuary being a term used when describing areas where the federal immigration authorities feels they receive no cooperation in identifying and detaining people suspected of being in the country illegally—which of course is the job of the federal government and not state and local governments
Los Angeles isn’t alone, arrests were also made in San Francisco and San Jose. Overall, there has been over 500 people arrested across the country and about 167 in the Los Angeles area alone according to the Los Angeles Times over the last few days during these ICE raids.
This surge of arrests is not unlike past ICE operations in recent years. However, these particular raids seem to clearly focus on cities deemed by justice officials to be not in compliance with enforcing our country’s broken immigration laws has served to ratchet up an already tense standoff.
As our novice president continues to pander to his voting base and push for his sweeping crackdown on the estimated 12 million people living in the country illegally, he through his xenophobic Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, have all but demanded the local agencies give immigration agents unfettered access to jails and delay releasing immigrants from custody so the agents can nab them.
It is during these horrible times under our reality show administration that officials in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other progressive communities have rebuffed the demands, passing local laws and implementing policies that restrict what police can and cannot do for ICE agents. Furthermore, the State of California and cities of San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago have sued the Justice Department over their blackmail tactics of withholding federal crime fighting funds from alleged sanctuary cities. However, a Federal Judge in Chicago issued a temporary injunction again the Justice Department’s withholding of crime fighting funds to sanctuary cities. With the spotlight on immigration as of late, even more conservative areas are beginning to resist, where authorities have been unwilling to hold on to inmates for ICE out of concern that doing so is illegal.
Los Angeles Attorney Glenn Fogle, principal member and founder of The Fogle Law Firm, criticized the ICE focus on sanctuary cities.
“These raids have absolutely anything to do with public safety,” he said, “Rather they are clearly the political lashing out emanating from Sessions, doing the bidding of a president who could care less about the public safety in America.”
Earlier this month, Los Angeles city officials announced they want to formally declare Los Angeles a “city of sanctuary,” in response to Trump’s move to end protections for people brought to the United States as children or (DACA).
