Washington’s naive sanctuary law puts community at risk

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson recently filed his 53rd lawsuit against the Trump administration. This suit seeks to prevent federal immigration officials from enforcing immigration laws anywhere near county courthouses.

It also came with an offer — if federal officials could assure AG Ferguson that immigration officials were interested only in apprehending violent offenders and those posing a danger to our communities, he would drop the lawsuit. As a U.S. Attorney whose career has been spent mostly in law enforcement, I am most concerned about those very offenders.

After witnessing unprecedented improvements in cooperation between law enforcement agencies after the unfathomable terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, I am troubled that Washington state’s cooperation with federal law enforcement officials is at an all-time low.

This is not a failure of our law enforcement professionals but rather a deliberate politicization of public safety.

In April, state politicians passed a law making Washington a sanctuary state. The law means local and state law enforcement officials are now strongly encouraged not to cooperate or share information with federal officials on immigration enforcement matters. What is lost in this feel good, naive approach to immigration and law enforcement cooperation is that it leaves many of our fellow Washingtonians to pay the tab with their lives and personal safety. And make no mistake, many of those paying the price are the very immigrants we welcome into our community who are victimized by the criminals we fail to remove.

Here are just three of the many examples:

• In October, Rudy Garcia-Hernandez and Carlos Iraheta-Vega were charged with first-degree murder in the death of a 16-year-old boy. The men beat the youngster with a baseball bat, chopped his neck with a machete and left his dismembered body near the Green River.

Iraheta-Vega, was in the U.S. illegally from El Salvador, and the King County jail released him when local officials did not honor an immigration hold. Garcia-Hernandez had a warrant for his arrest after he failed to appear for a 2015 court date in California. Law enforcement knew Garcia-Hernandez had “violent tendencies, was armed and dangerous, and known to brandish a machete to intimidate,” according to the ICE document.

• Francisco Carranza-Ramirez, a Mexican citizen, pleaded guilty to third-degree rape of a woman who uses a wheelchair. His lawyers told the court he planned to board the next flight to Mexico. The defendant was released on the condition he register as a sex offender and provide proof that he left the United States. But Carranza-Ramirez didn’t return to Mexico. Just days after his release, he went to the victim’s home and attempted to strangle her in front of her 3-year-old son.

• In September, a man headed to a University of Washington Husky football game with his young son was stabbed as he rode a Link light-rail train. The unprovoked attack came from a man in the U.S. illegally with multiple domestic violence convictions. He had been released from the King County jail despite an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) hold. The victim survived; his alleged attacker remains jailed.

We should all understand a critical fact — we are talking about individuals who are not just illegally in the United States, but individuals who are also committing crimes and victimizing our communities. These are offenders who have been charged by local prosecutors and jailed by judges because they pose a danger. They have committed crimes such as assault, violation of protection orders, impaired driving, and firearm and drug offenses.

Washington’s sanctuary law will continue to cost human lives and cause human misery. The fact that many tragedies could be prevented — but for sanctuary laws and policies — makes them even more heartbreaking.

I have a counteroffer for AG Ferguson.

Save the paper spent on lawsuits and, instead, encourage cooperation among all law enforcement professionals rather than working to stifle it.

In announcing his lawsuit, Ferguson was joined by King and Thurston County prosecutors who asserted that immigration enforcement is not their job. True, but public safety is, and if public safety can be advanced by picking up a phone and cooperating with federal officials on those who endanger our communities, why not do it?

https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/washingtons-sanctuary-law-puts-community-at-risk/