‘ Show up to court with a toothbrush': ICE says sanctuary city officials should expect jail time if they ignore subpoenas

by Anna Giaritelli

| January 23, 2020 05:59 PM

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is prepared to go to court with two "sanctuary cities," New York City, New York, and Denver, Colorado, if they fail to provide personal information on illegal immigrants with criminal records released in each city instead of being transferred to ICE.

“We expect them to comply" with subpoenas for the information, said acting ICE Director Matt Albence at a press conference in Washington on Thursday. "If they don’t comply, we’ll be working with DOJ to go to district court to force them to comply with the requirements,” Albence said, noting the rule in the U.S. Code that he said justified the move. “The individuals that fail to comply can be held in contempt," he said. "They can show up to court with a toothbrush because they might not be going home that night. Because they could be jailed for failure to comply with a lawful order from a judge. That’s the route we’re going.”

ICE looks at local arrests to see if a person is illegally in the country. If they appear to be an illegal immigrant, the officer can request that the local law enforcement agency notify ICE before they are released so that ICE can take custody and begin deportation proceedings. Sanctuary zones release illegal immigrants, including those with criminal convictions, after they make bail or serve time in jail without notifying ICE.

Albence said the subpoenas were a “last resort” to force “sanctuary cities” to help federal officers find people at their homes and jobs if local jails will not turn them over while in secure settings. ICE focuses most of its effort going after people illegally in the country charged or convicted of criminal offenses.

“Hopefully, when some of these other jurisdictions that don’t want to cooperate see that we’re taking this seriously, maybe they’ll come around and try to help us help their own communities,” said Albence, who was tapped to lead the 20,000-person agency six months ago. He did not answer if Denver or New York would face retaliation from the federal government if they do not honor the subpoenas.

Last year, ICE asked New York City to notify it before releasing 7,500 illegal immigrants so that it could transfer each person into custody. None of the requests were honored.

For the first time ever last week, ICE subpoenaed a local law enforcement office, sending four requests to the New York Department of Corrections and four to the Denver Justice Center.

The subpoenas ask for the phone number, home address, type of vehicle, employer, and more information that can help ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations officers go into the person’s community and try to arrest them. Albence said that sanctuary cities force ICE to squander resources running around trying to find people and that localities are forced to waste manpower rearresting criminals who could have been deported.

“How much time could NYPD could have dedicated to doing other functions instead of continually arresting people that are here illegally, have no lawful right to be here, and are committing further crimes?” he asked. “Our goal is to find them before they commit further crimes, right? We’re actually able to prevent crimes if we can get these people off the street.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/show-up-to-court-with-a-toothbrush-ice-says-sanctuary-city-officials-should-expect-jail-time-if-they-ignore-subpoenas?_amp=true&__twitter_impression=true

ICE reopening long-closed deportation cases against Dreamers

By Bob Ortega, CNN Investigates

Updated 6:01 AM EST, Sat December 21, 2019

(CNN) The letter this fall from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement turned Zoila Pelayo's life on end. Stunned, she read that the agency was filing to reopen a deportation case against her that had been closed nearly eight years ago.

Pelayo, 33, lives with her husband and two young children in Tucson, Arizona. Her parents brought her there from Mexico without documentation when she was 6. As a "Dreamer" who has been shielded from deportation since 2012 under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, and who has stayed out of trouble with the law, Pelayo believed she was safe.

"I never thought they would reopen my case," she said. "I feel like I'm an American … If they send me back to Mexico what are my kids going to do without me? What am I going to do without them?"

'Secret and unaccountable': Where some immigrant teens are being taken by ICE

'Secret and unaccountable': Where some immigrant teens are being taken by ICE

Pelayo isn't the only one facing that question. Now, in an escalation of its pursuit of undocumented immigrants, the Trump administration is moving to deport members of the very group that seemed until a few years ago the most protected: DACA recipients.

ICE has begun asking immigration courts to reopen administratively closed deportation cases against DACA recipients who continue to have no criminal record, or only a minor record. Immigration attorneys in Arizona confirmed at least 14 such cases being reopened since October, and CNN also found DACA recipients whose cases recently were reopened in Nevada and Missouri.

And that is just the beginning. ICE confirmed to CNN that all DACA recipients whose deportation cases have been administratively closed can expect to see them reopened. In an email, the agency stated that "re-calendaring of administratively closed cases is occurring nationwide and not isolated to a particular state or region."

More at Link: https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/12/21/us/ice-reopening-dreamer-deportation-cases-invs/index.html?__twitter_impression=true

Q,

Can you please tweet or have them add in the Public Pool a link whenever the DHS Secretary, ICE Director, or CBP Director speaks publicly for those of us that like to follow the border. Thanks!