Politics
JUST IN: Trump’s Genius Strategy To Side-Step Sanctuary City Policies Is Revealed
Trump administration officials are laying the groundwork for a bold new strategy to sidestep local opposition to their immigration agenda, according to a Fox News contributor who said he’s impressed with their plans.
Marc Thiessen, a previous speech writer to former President George W. Bush, told a Fox panel he was left amazed after learning that immigration officials, led by White House border czar Tom Homan and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, will soon begin employing a new classification of law-breaking behavior by illegal immigrants that sanctuary cities and states may find impossible to ignore.
Until now, sanctuary locales have been generally free to ignore civil detainers by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, which are lodged when federal officials receive notice that a suspected illegal immigrant has been placed in custody. The suspects are frequently given court appearances, either walking on recognizance or posting bond before ICE agents can arrive days later to apprehend them.
But such jurisdictions will be no match for felony federal warrants, a new charge that the Trump administration plans to slap illegal immigrants with after they are located.
“Two elections now, Donald Trump has beaten the Democrats, powered by illegal immigration, and they still can’t seem to get it right,” Thiessen said while speaking about the Los Angeles riots. “You have people literally burning cars, throwing rocks at ICE agents, and the Democrats are siding with the protesters over the administration trying to restore law and order.”
“And what has the left riled up, and what’s causing all this, is that the Trump administration has figured out a way around sanctuary city laws. Local officials can refuse to honor an ICE detainer, but they can’t refuse to honor a federal felony warrant. So the Trump administration has this thing called Operation Guardian Angel, where they are charging illegal migrants who reenter the country with felony illegal reentry, and then they are presenting the local jurisdictions with federal felony warrants, and they have to hand them over. So they’ve been handing over hundreds of illegal migrants to ICE, and this has set people off—they found a way to basically lock the sanctuary city policies.”
Fox News host Shannon Bream noted that the ACLU has denounced the tactic as an “inflammatory and abusive use of power.”
“By taking this action, the Trump administration is putting them in danger, creating jeopardy for troops, and recklessly undermining our foundational democratic principle that the military should not police civilians,” she responded, RCP reported.
But Trump believes he is well within the majority of public approval related to his actions. Polls released this week by CNN and CBS News show a healthy majority of Americans approving of his illegal immigration policies, including a majority belief that he is focused on deporting violent illegal immigrants first.
At the same time, Miller has warned ICE agents that their jobs are on the line if they don’t boost their number of daily arrests. The architect of Trump’s immigration policies is demanding that Homan and Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons complete 3,000 arrests per day going forward.
In a fiery meeting last month, Miller allegedly left ICE agents fearful for their employment prospects after calling them out for letting down President Trump. Now, all actions are on the table as ICE agents step up their enforcement at places of worship, immigration hearings, and other locations that were off-limits under past administrations.
