OPINION:
The Department of Homeland Security is playing the shaming game, and releasing name of jails in local communities that won’t get in lawful line and honor detainer requests from the federal authorities.
Good. And the award for Best Place to Get Arrested as an Illegal is … Travis County, Texas, a spot that includes the very liberal Austin. Of 206 names of sheltered illegals on a list compiled by DHS, two-thirds or so hailed from Travis County.
Unbelievable. There must be something in the water in Travis County. Either that, or Democrats in office.
Oh yes, the latter, it seems.
This, from Fox News: “Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez, a Democrat, was elected last fall after campaigning on refusing to comply with immigration detainers in cases where people were arrested on minor offenses unrelated to their being in the country illegally.”
Never mind that logical discourse would say that all offenses committed by illegals relate to the fact they’re in the country illegally — but that’s not how Democrats think.
Detainers, of course, are communications from the federal government to the jail, asking that the illegal be turned over to immigration officials for possible deportation. So non-complying jails are really saying, to the feds: No, you’re not going to deport this person.
That’s the mentality of sanctuary cities.
The message to illegals — the dangerous message to illegals, because it puts innocent citizens at risk — is simply one of an open arm embrace. Just ask Jill Steinle’s father. He’s the guy who stood and watched as an illegal immigrant with a felony record and several previous deportations shot and killed his daughter on a San Francisco pier a while back. The illegal reportedly told police he was in the city because of its sanctuary policy — that he knew he wouldn’t be deported.
Now look at Travis County.
Sheriff Hernandez is still honoring detainers for serious crimes, including murder. But other crimes, like property thefts and certain assaults?
Those crimes apparently don’t meet the local law enforcement’s criteria for bad enough to be deported. So illegals, while arrested and possibly jailed, nonetheless get a free pass to stay in America.
This is the stuff that drives the law-abiding in the country mad with outrage — and it’s a big reason President Donald Trump won the White House. But Democrats, much as they need to win some elections, particularly at the federal level, apparently aren’t ceding the shelter-the-illegal point.
Again, from Fox, about the 206 cases on the DHS list: “The 206 figure is somewhat murky. It doesn’t represent all the cases in which immigration authorities sought custody of people facing criminal charges, with major cities like New York and Los Angeles underrepresented on the list. It’s also unclear what period it covers. The cases were identified by the administration between Jan. 28 and Feb. 3, but most of the detention requests had been made before then, as far back as early 2014. Also unclear is the status of the immigrants — whether some are in federal or state custody.”
You know what that means, don’t you?
It means 206 illegals who’ve been taken into custody for committing some sort of crime could very well be out and about, back on the streets, thumbing their noses at America’s borders, at federal immigration authorities and at U.S. law and justice. Coming to a community near you.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.