California

ICE carries out week-long operation in California despite sanctuary law limiting arrests

More than 125 immigrants across California were arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a week-long operation targeting individuals who the agency says couldn’t be arrested before due to the state’s sanctuary law.

ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday announced the week-long operation, which ended Oct. 3. More than 95% of those arrested, ICE said, had criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.

The Washington Post on Sept. 29 reported on ICE’s plans to target immigrants in communities that have adopted so-called “sanctuary” policies. It was also reported that those raids would start in California last week, prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office to describe the raids as “unabashedly cruel.”

Jonathan C. Moor, a spokesman for ICE, said the ICE San Francisco Field Office had six arrests as part of the operation, but those arrests took place in the Bay Area. The field office’s coverage stretches down to Bakersfield, he said.

Moor responded to critics who have linked the operation to the upcoming election to ramp-up President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric.

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“This operation was going to take place, regardless of an election,” he told The Bee.

Sanctuary laws, he said, are “misguided policies” and are “very harmful” for communities, he said. Immigration advocates have said communities are safer when they can trust police.

“A part of ICE’s mission is to protect the American people and provide security to our communities. We accomplish this when we are partners and not adversaries with our localities. These partnerships allow ICE to secure dangerous criminal aliens prior to their release into the communities thereby reducing the opportunity for recidivist behavior,” Tony H. Pham, acting director for ICE, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, California’s sanctuary laws protect and shield criminal aliens, harboring them in our communities where they can potentially reoffend and revictimize.”

The 2018 California Values Act, more commonly known as the state’s sanctuary law, limits local-level law enforcement cooperation with ICE.

ICE has maintained that in sanctuary jurisdictions, the agency is forced to make arrests out in communities as opposed to making those apprehensions in “the safe confines of a jail.”

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However, in August, a Fresno Bee story revealed that despite the state’s sanctuary law, ICE had arrested hundreds of immigrants at the Fresno County jail.

ICE describes sweep

ICE on Wednesday said the agency had identified and targeted immigrants who had been previously released from the custody of local and state law enforcement, despite ICE having lodged an immigration detainer for local police to hold those individuals for ICE to arrest them.

“In the Los Angeles-area alone, officers arrested nearly 100 unlawfully present individuals — with criminal histories that include homicide, sexual assault, sex crimes involving children, assault, robbery, domestic violence and DUI,” ICE said in the statement.

Some of those arrested were deported back to their home-country the same day, according to ICE.

Moor said even if there were more similar operations scheduled to take place in coming weeks, he wouldn’t be able to talk about them until after they are carried out. But he said ICE will continue to follow laws approved by Congress for the federal agency to locate and arrest people who are in violation of immigration laws.

Congressional leader’s complaint

Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship, on Wednesday sent a letter to Pham. In her letter, she expressed concerns over the operation in California announced Wednesday, which she describes as being part of the “Sanctuary Op” — the raids ICE had planned.

She said the operation will send more immigrants to detention centers, where the “spread of COVID-19 cannot be adequately controlled.”

Lofgren described the actions as “dangerous and irresponsible.”

“I am deeply disturbed that ICE is spending government dollars and putting lives at risk in furtherance of what is described as a political messaging campaign, when the agency has failed to take adequate measures to protect detainees, and the surrounding communities, from COVID-19,” she wrote.

Lofgren asks ICE to answer a list of questions regarding the raids by Oct. 16.

Jesse Melgar, a spokesperson for the California governor’s office, last week criticized the federal agency for targeting sanctuary cities.

“These tactics are not new, but they are unabashedly cruel in their effort to instill fear in Californians who are disproportionately struggling through a pandemic, wildfires, loss of family and friends to COVID-19, as well as economic losses,” Melgar told The Bee last week. “All Californians must know they have legal rights and protections, regardless of their immigration status.”

Yesenia Amaro covers immigration and diverse communities for The Fresno Bee. She previously worked for the Phnom Penh Post in Cambodia and the Las Vegas Review-Journal in Nevada. She recently received the 2018 Journalistic Integrity award from the CACJ. In 2015, she won the Outstanding Journalist of the Year Award from the Nevada Press Association, and also received the Community Service Award.
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