Tom Homan, the incoming border czar for the Trump administration, has devised a strategy to address a significant jurisdiction that has recently strengthened its statewide sanctuary law.
In December, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, which is controlled by Democrats, made a decision to enhance a California sanctuary policy that already restricts the cooperation between local law enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The new county-wide ordinance goes a step further by prohibiting law enforcement from informing ICE agents, even in cases involving serious crimes committed by foreign nationals, such as rape, child abuse, burglary, gang violence, and other heinous acts.
Homan, who has been tasked with carrying out President-elect Donald Trump’s vow of mass apprehensions and deportations of illegal immigrants across the country, slammed the politicians who participated in the vote, saying they should just expect more ICE agents in their communities as a result.
“Rather than arresting an illegal alien criminal in the safety and security of a county jail where we know he doesn’t have weapons, they’re forcing ICE officers into the streets, into neighborhoods to find these people,” Homan said to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It’s ridiculous.”
“[Sanctuary laws] make it more difficult, but it doesn’t mean we’re not going to do it,” Homan said. “It just means we’ll have more agents in San Diego because rather than one guy arresting a guy in a jail — we have to send a whole team to safely arrest a guy, so they can expect a lot more agents in that jurisdiction.”
In her recommendation for the policy change, Democrat Supervisor Nora Vargas described the section in California law that permitted exceptions for foreign nationals with serious criminal histories as a “loophole” that “fell short of protecting all residents.” The plan succeeded 3-1, with GOP Supervisor Jim Desmond casting the lone vote against it.
The resolution directs San Diego County to no longer allow ICE agents to use county facilities for any purpose, reply to ICE inquiries, or otherwise help in any civil immigration enforcement action.
In a blistering public speech following its approval, Desmond referred to the policy as a “super” sanctuary law that protects illegal migrant criminals.
“This reckless measure not only goes far beyond California’s already extreme Sanctuary State laws but actively endangers our communities by shielding illegal immigrant criminals from deportation. Consider this: under this policy, law enforcement is prohibited from notifying ICE about individuals, in custody, who have committed violent and heinous crimes, including: Rape and stalking, Assault and battery, Burglary, Child abuse and more,” Desmond said in a statement provided to the DCNF earlier in December.
During an interview in December, former Democrat California Gov. Jerry Brown, who signed SB 54 into law in 2017, which prohibits some cooperation between ICE and local authorities, stated that he believes some cities across the state have now gone “way, way beyond” what he put on the books, and that his statewide policy made exceptions for migrants convicted of violent crimes.
The San Diego County vote was just one of numerous steps by Democratic-controlled jurisdictions to strengthen sanctuary policies in the aftermath of Trump’s election triumph. Lawmakers in Los Angeles, Boston, Arlington County, Virginia, and other cities have all voted to make their sanctuary laws official or to reaffirm existing laws, and other Democratic mayors have publicly opposed Trump’s promises of a tough immigration enforcement agenda.
These refusals to cooperate could jeopardize the Trump administration’s ambitions for large-scale enforcement. The Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that pushes for harsher immigration restrictions, believes that roughly eight million illegal aliens are currently living in sanctuary areas.
Homan expressed confusion about legislators who would prefer to hand over horrible criminals to ICE, thereby reducing their threat to their constituents.
“I’ve been clear and President Trump’s been clear, we’re going to concentrate on public safety threats right out of the gate,” Homan said to the DCNF. “What elected official doesn’t want public safety threats removed from their community?”