Despite losing at the state level efforts to undermine ICE detainers continue in California. The latest effort by the ACLU to sue sheriff Lee Baca over detentions is a reminder that anti-enforcement groups won’t rest until no illegal aliens are detained prior to deportation, and the only illegal aliens deported are those caught at the border.
Columnist: Prince William Decision by DHS Makes No Sense
“Leave it to the federal government to needlessly disrupt local laws that have been in force for five years in Prince William… laws that seem to cry out, ‘Leave us alone. We’re working!’ I speak of a move made public this week by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to lessen, in effect, the enforcement of the country’s immigration laws on virtually everyone other than known criminals,” says John Merli at InsideNOVA.com. “Enforcement, therefore, is likely to wane. Given the fact that items in the federal budget will be on the chopping block for years to come, ICE is in no position to effectively enforce immigration rules at the state and county levels, and if it thinks checking some massive federal database of names will help, then we have a bridge in Brooklyn it might be interested in purchasing.”
What Part of Arizona’s Law Did Romney Say Was a “Model” for the U.S.?
“The president accused Mr. Romney of calling Arizona’s controversial immigration-enforcement law “a model for the nation.” Mr. Romney denied the assertion. “I said that the E-Verify portion of the Arizona law, which is the portion of the law which says that employers could be able to determine whether someone is here illegally or not illegally, that that was a model for the nation,” said the former Massachusetts governor. Mr. Romney is correct,” says Jason L. Riley in the Wall Street Journal.
ACLU Sues LA Sheriff Over Detainers
“The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca on behalf of people who say they were denied bail for minor offenses after being flagged by immigration authorities. British filmmaker Duncan Roy, who says he spent nearly three months in L.A. County jails without a chance to post bail, is one of the five plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which will be filed today in U.S. District Court,” the LA Times reports. “Denying bail to arrestees would go above and beyond Secure Communities, which requires only that local law enforcement agencies honor the 48-hour ICE holds. Alain Martinez-Perez, another plaintiff in the ACLU lawsuit, was arrested in December following a domestic dispute. He spent several days behind bars while his cousin’s efforts to post bail were rejected because he was under an immigration hold, the lawsuit says.”