Fact Check: Does California’s sanctuary law protect criminal illegal immigrants?
President Donald Trump in his State of the Union speech Tuesday night called out California for what is known as its “sanctuary state” law.
“The State of California passed an outrageous law declaring their whole state to be a sanctuary for criminal illegal immigrants — with catastrophic results,” Trump said.
The state’s law, passed in September 2017, bars local law enforcement from targeting people based solely on their immigration status and limits what they can tell federal immigration officials about people they’re holding, such as when they’re due to be released from jail.
The law builds on The Trust Act of 2013, which bars police from detaining people at the request of immigration officials if they were intended for release.
Both laws have exemptions for those suspected of serious or violent crimes.
The Trust Act outlines 800 offenses that are exceptions to the rule, including serious or violent felonies, certain drug offenses, arson, registered sex offenses and domestic violence.
Immigration authorities are still allowed in jails to question inmates and allows state prison officials to continue working with federal immigration agents on deportations.
Trump in his speech said the sanctuary law had protected a man accused of going on a crime spree in December 2018, including killing one, injuring at least six others, robbing thousands of dollars from a convenience store and leading a wrong-way chase down a busy highway in a stolen truck, according to police.
“Here is just one tragic example,” Trump said. “In December 2018, California police detained an illegal alien with five prior arrests, including convictions for robbery and assault. But as required by California’s sanctuary law, local authorities released him.”
Junior “Gustavo” Garcia-Ruiz had previously been deported and was arrested just days before his violent rampage, Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux told reporters at the time, due to erratic behavior and testing positive for an unspecified controlled substance. But it was a misdemeanor charge, and he was released.
While Garcia-Ruiz was in jail, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials learned about his arrest and issued an immigration hold, the agency said. But the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office let him go — because they had no choice under the sanctuary law, Boudreaux said.
Garcia-Ruiz has a known criminal past. The sheriff’s office said he received a one-year jail sentence and 36 months probation in 2003, after facing criminal charges in 2002, including armed robbery in Fresno, and assault with a deadly weapon in Reedley. But Boudreaux said Garcia-Ruiz’s past convictions couldn’t be used as a reason to honor ICE’s detainer request because the violent crimes happened more than 15 years ago.
Garcia-Ruiz died during the police chase in the stolen truck. A 51-year-old man named Rocky Jones was killed by Garcia-Ruiz during his crime spree. Trump invited his brother, Jody Jones, as one of his guests to the State of the Union.
This story was originally published February 4, 2020 at 8:01 PM.
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