{"id":21797,"date":"2019-08-05T14:25:18","date_gmt":"2019-08-05T18:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=21797"},"modified":"2019-08-05T14:25:20","modified_gmt":"2019-08-05T18:25:20","slug":"sanctuary-illegal-aliens-abetting-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2019\/08\/05\/sanctuary-illegal-aliens-abetting-crime\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cProtecting\u201d Illegal Aliens Isn\u2019t Neighborly or Virtuous: It\u2019s a Crime"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You could hardly have missed it.\u00a0 It was all over the media in the past few days, and seemingly painted more as a human-interest story than one about people flagrantly violating the law: \u201cNashville neighbors stop ICE agents from nabbing father and son by linking arms in driveway\u201d<\/a>; \u201cICE agents back down after neighbors, activists link arms to help father and son avoid feds\u201d<\/a>; \u201cICE tries to bring man into custody, neighbors form human chain to let them get home\u201d<\/a>; \u00a0etc., etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazingly, one reporter even stated, as if it were an indisputable fact, that<\/a> \u201c[b]ecause this was a civil matter \u2026 citizens are not committing a crime by interfering.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s simply incorrect as a matter of law, and reckless to even suggest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So why were none of these \u201cneighbors\u201d arrested for stopping ICE from picking up someone the agency says was a known convicted criminal<\/a>?\u00a0 When police come looking for an American citizen who\u2019s committed a crime, do the neighbors normally think they can get in the way without consequences?\u00a0 Do they think keeping law enforcement from doing their jobs and keeping the community safe is just the neighborly thing to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When 10 News Nashville spoke to Lincoln Memorial University\nlaw professor William Gill to try to explain to viewers why none of the \u201chuman\nchain\u201d were arrested, he didn\u2019t say ICE couldn\u2019t have arrested them.  Instead he recognized the agency likely could\nhave for \u201csome kind of obstruction charge\u201d but for whatever reason \u201cprobably\ndecided they didn’t want to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what does the law actually say?  The law sure sounds like this was a crime.  Probably multiple crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Gill\u2019s first instinct was correct in mentioning the federal obstruction of justice laws.\u00a0 When ICE is actively looking for a particular illegal alien, that often means the alien has already been ordered removed from the country by an immigration judge.\u00a0 It follows\u00a0 that someone getting in the way of ICE enforcing that order of removal could be committing \u201cobstruction of proceedings\u201d<\/a> before a federal agency, namely before the immigration court that issued the order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there are also other federal crimes more specific to people getting in the way of immigration enforcement.\u00a0 In Title 8 of the United States Code, Section 1324<\/a> is called \u201cBringing in and harboring certain aliens.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s often referred to as the federal alien \u201csmuggling\u201d statute, but it actually criminalizes many more activities regarding protecting or assisting aliens than just anything that could described as smuggling.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s probably more accurate to refer to it as the alien harboring statute.\u00a0 It might or might not have applied to this particular situation, but easily could in similar circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, neither the obstruction nor harboring statute requires\nfederal agents to have a criminal warrant for the person they\u2019re looking before\nsomeone else deliberately getting in the way can be arrested.  Neither statute draws any distinction between\ncriminal and civil enforcement at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is just one prominent episode in an alarming trend: a lot of people don\u2019t just think illegal aliens can freely break the law, but that everyone else can do it too if it\u2019s to \u201chelp\u201d or \u201cprotect\u201d illegal aliens.\u00a0 It\u2019s one more part of what\u2019s been described as<\/a> \u201ca radical new framework that treats any restrictions on immigration and enforcement of current laws as immoral.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even people like the Mayor of Oakland<\/a> or a state court judge<\/a> in Massachusetts\u2014public officials sworn to uphold the law\u2014buy into it and act on it.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy virtue-signaling as long as there are no consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So there need to be consequences.  This dangerous myth needs to be dispelled or\nmore people will interfere with immigration enforcement and it\u2019ll become ever\nmore dangerous for everyone involved.  While\nICE exercised their judgment and discretion to act with restraint and not make\ncriminal arrests this time, the only way to make people realize it\u2019s\nunacceptable to obstruct the enforcement of immigration laws may be for ICE and\nother federal agencies to start making more arrests in the future when the \u201cneighbors\u201d\ntry to get in the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You could hardly have missed it.\u00a0 It was all over the media in the past few days, and seemingly painted more as a human-interest story than one about people flagrantly violating the law: \u201cNashville neighbors stop ICE agents from nabbing father and son by linking arms in driveway\u201d; \u201cICE agents back down after neighbors, activists<\/p>\n

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