LOS ANGELES, Sept 27, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The “emotional impact” on families
hit by the crackdown on undocumented California immigrants could be reduced
if local authorities scrap “sanctuary” laws and cooperate with ICE, the
immigration police’s Los Angeles chief said Thursday.
California declared itself a “sanctuary” state in 2017, introducing laws
that stop local police from cooperating with federal authorities in the
capture of illegal immigrants, or from turning prisoners over to the federal
agency for deportation.
As a result Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which has gained
more power under the administration of President Donald Trump, carries out
its own searches for undocumented immigrants within California communities.
Sanctuary laws “endanger the public by prohibiting local law enforcement
agencies from working with ICE or even sharing essential information,” David
Marin told a Los Angeles press conference. “Sanctuary policies are protecting
these criminal aliens.”
California, the most populous state in the country, is generally at odds
with Trump on issues like immigration. Hispanics are the state’s largest
minority, with 4.9 million living in Los Angeles alone, according to the Pew
Institute.
According to Marin, this week 155 undocumented immigrants were detained in
the Los Angeles area for deportation. Some 79 had been through local prisons
and been released despite ICE reporting that they were wanted for
deportation.
“The men and women of ICE — they are fathers, mothers, brothers and
sisters, they understand the emotional impact that it has, when you arrest
somebody, especially in front of family members and in front of children …
that’s devastating for those children as well as other family members,” said
Marin.
“That’s something that we would rather not do.”
He added: “Because we can’t work with local law enforcement to take custody
of individuals inside the jail, we have to go out into the community more. So
we’re out there encountering people at their homes, at their places of
employment.”
Marin said the 155 detained were not captured in raids, which he insisted
are not ICE policy — although 680 people were detained in a Mississippi
operation last month amid Trump’s calls for mass deportations.