Tom Homan, the incoming border czar for the Trump administration, has a plan to deal with a major jurisdiction that recently doubled down on a statewide sanctuary law.

The Democrat-controlled San Diego County Board of Supervisors in December voted to expand a California sanctuary policy that already limited local law enforcement’s ability to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The county-wide ordinance further restricts law enforcement from notifying ICE agents about a foreign national in their custody, even if they have committed severe crimes such as rape, child abuse, burglary or gang violence.

Homan, who has been tasked with fulfilling President-elect Donald Trump’s promise of mass apprehensions and deportations of illegal migrants across the United States, blasted the lawmakers involved with the vote and said they can simply expect more ICE agents in their neighborhoods as a result.

“Rather than arresting an illegal alien criminal in the safety and security of a county jail where we know he doesn’t have weapons, they’re forcing ICE officers into the streets, into neighborhoods to find these people,” Homan said to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It’s ridiculous.”

“[Sanctuary laws] make it more difficult, but it doesn’t mean we’re not going to do it,” Homan said. “It just means we’ll have more agents in San Diego because rather than one guy arresting a guy in a jail — we have to send a whole team to safely arrest a guy, so they can expect a lot more agents in that jurisdiction.”

In her proposal for the policy change, Democrat Supervisor Nora Vargas referred to the provision within California law that made exceptions for foreign nationals with serious criminal histories as a “loophole” that “fell short of protecting all residents.” The proposal passed by a vote of 3-1, with GOP Supervisor Jim Desmond being the lone vote against it.

The resolution calls on San Diego County to no longer allow ICE agents use of county facilities for any purposes, no longer respond to ICE inquiries, or otherwise assist in any civil immigration enforcement matter.

In a scathing public statement after its passage, Desmond referred to the policy as a “super” sanctuary law that serves to protect illegal migrant criminals.

“This reckless measure not only goes far beyond California’s already extreme Sanctuary State laws but actively endangers our communities by shielding illegal immigrant criminals from deportation. Consider this: under this policy, law enforcement is prohibited from notifying ICE about individuals, in custody, who have committed violent and heinous crimes, including: Rape and stalking, Assault and battery, Burglary, Child abuse and more,” Desmond said in a statement provided to the DCNF earlier in December.

During an interview in December, former Democrat California Gov. Jerry Brown — who signed SB 54 into law in 2017, which prohibits some cooperation between ICE and local authorities — said he believes some cities across the state have now gone “way, way beyond” what he put on the books, and noted that his statewide policy made exceptions for migrants convicted of violent crimes.

The vote in San Diego County was just one of several moves by Democrat-controlled jurisdictions to tighten sanctuary policy in the wake of Trump’s election victory. Lawmakers in Los Angeles, Boston, Arlington County, Virginia and elsewhere have all voted to either make their sanctuary laws official or reaffirm what laws they already had in the books, and other Democrat mayors have voiced public opposition to Trump’s pledges of a hardline immigration enforcement agenda.

These efforts to refuse cooperation could prove to be problematic for the Trump administration’s plans for mass enforcement actions. The Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based group that advocates for stricter immigration laws, estimates that are nearly eight million illegal migrants currently live within sanctuary jurisdictions.

Homan expressed confusion at politicians who wouldn’t rather have heinous criminals handed over to ICE, rendering them a threat no longer to their constituents.

“I’ve been clear and President Trump’s been clear, we’re going to concentrate on public safety threats right out of the gate,” Homan said to the DCNF. “What elected official doesn’t want public safety threats removed from their community?”

AUTHOR

Jason Hopkins

Immigration reporter.

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