Blaze News investigates: ICE officials speak out about how 'sanctuary' policies protect criminals

Many Democratic-run jurisdictions across the United States have adopted various forms of so-called 'sanctuary' policies that continue to provide protections to illegal migrant criminals by creating massive roadblocks for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the agency and immigration experts.

The term "sanctuary policy" describes several similar ordinances that ultimately prevent local and state law enforcement officials from coordinating and cooperating with federal immigration officers.

Marie Ferguson, a spokesperson for ICE's New York City Field Office, told Blaze News that there is "no official or agreed-upon definition of what constitutes a 'sanctuary' jurisdiction"; however, the policies typically encompass three categories: "Don't enforce," "don't ask," and "don't tell."

Ferguson explained that "don't enforce" policies prohibit police from aiding federal immigration authorities; "don't ask" policies ban local officials from looking into an individual's immigration status; and "don't tell" policies prohibit police and federal officials from sharing information.

How do sanctuary policies undermine ICE?

Ferguson stated that measures restricting cooperation between local law enforcement agencies and federal immigration officers "threaten public safety" because it "means criminal noncitizens are released back into our communities with opportunity to reoffend before being apprehended by [ICE's] Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO)."

John Fabbricatore, a retired ICE Denver Field Office Director and current Republican congressional candidate for Colorado's 6th District, told Blaze News that the regulations in sanctuary jurisdictions prevent local law enforcement agencies from communicating with ICE when they arrest or release an illegal alien.

"It makes it where ICE then has to go and find that information in other ways," he stated.

Fabbricatore explained that it is becoming more difficult for ICE to do its job because, in addition to restricting local law enforcement cooperation, some sanctuary laws also prevent other state-run agencies, such as motor vehicle and labor departments, from communicating with ICE.

"Here in Denver, they don't even allow probation and parole to give information to ICE," he told Blaze News. "So this is an illegal alien that's been convicted of a crime and then released out onto the street, and ICE is not allowed to get any information on that person. But yet, the illegal alien is going out on, say, probation, and it's being paid for by the U.S. taxpayer."

Two Colorado counties filed a lawsuit this week against the state, demanding it put an end to its sanctuary policies, claiming the measures "create dangerous conditions" for residents and citizens. Approximately 40,000 illegal migrants have moved to Denver over the past 16 months.

Fabbricatore says sanctuary policies were created as part of the abolish-ICE movement to hinder federal immigration officials. These restrictions typically prevent local or state law enforcement from honoring ICE's detainer requests.

ICE's ERO, which "manages all aspects of the immigration enforcement process," according to the agency's website, places detainer requests against migrants who have been arrested and held by local or state law enforcement agencies for committing criminal acts.

"Detainers request that state or local law enforcement agencies maintain custody of the noncitizen for a period not to exceed 48 hours beyond the time the individual would otherwise be released, allowing ERO to assume custody for removal purposes in accordance with federal law," Ferguson told Blaze News.

Without coordination from local agencies, ICE officials are forced to "expend additional resources and search within neighborhoods to re-apprehend these criminals at increased risk to the public and our officers," Ferguson remarked.

The ICE spokesperson noted that detainer requests "are a critical public safety tool" to ensure that criminals do not end up back on the street.

"Since detainers result in the direct transfer of a noncitizen from state or local custody to ERO custody, they minimize the potential that an individual will reoffend," Ferguson added.

The Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, has the authority under federal law to issue administrative arrest warrants for immigration violations. ICE issues an administrative warrant of arrest with each detainer request. However, sanctuary policies often state that federal authorities must obtain a criminal warrant issued by a judge or magistrate, which ICE claims "is not required or necessary according to federal law."

"When law enforcement agencies fail to honor immigration detainers and release serious criminal offenders onto the streets, it undermines ERO's ability to protect public safety and carry out its mission," Ferguson noted.

What are the consequences of sanctuary policies?

Fabbricatore, a board member of the National Immigration Center for Enforcement, provided testimony last year at the House Immigration Subcommittee's hearing, "Examine Sanctuary Cities That Shield Illegal Aliens." He raised concerns about the "erosion of immigration enforcement and lack of respect for the rule of law" and warned about the "hundreds of thousands of criminal aliens at large" in the country under the Biden administration.

"As an ICE field office director, I witnessed the deterioration of relationships with local law enforcement agencies because of sanctuary policies," he told lawmakers.

According to Fabbricatore, detainers were helpful tools utilized by ICE to ensure public safety until sanctuary policies began prohibiting the coordination between law enforcement agencies.

"A lot of the sanctuary jurisdictions don't allow their county jails to hold ICE detainees," Fabbricatore stated, referring to sheriff's departments that rent out their unused jail space to ICE. "That limits the overall population for what ICE can hold to a very low number."

According to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse data, nearly 35,000 illegal migrants were being held in ICE detention as of April 7. Fabbricatore stated that the number of individuals in ICE custody is "very low" considering "the millions of people that are coming in and how many we could put in detention if we had that detention space."

Sanctuary policies have forced ICE to exert additional manpower and hours to locate and detain illegal migrant criminals. If local law enforcement agencies were allowed to notify ICE before a criminal migrant was released from jail, it would only require one or two federal immigration agents to pick up and transfer the individual into federal custody, Fabbricatore explained to Blaze News. It can take up to six officers to apprehend a suspect who has been released onto the street, he added. ICE officers must also run surveillance before attempting to apprehend a suspect, which typically requires at least two officers, Fabbricatore said.

"So it takes a greater amount of hours and much more manpower than if a local jurisdiction would just say, 'Hey, this person's getting ready for release. ICE, come pick them up,'" he declared.

Fabbricatore noted that federal agents catching illegal migrants on the street is not only more expensive for taxpayers but also far more dangerous for officers.

"When two officers can go to the jail, it's a secure environment," he added. "But when you go to a home, or you pull someone over in a car, they are in the community. And now you have the potential as you go to pull someone over, they flee, they crash into somebody else. Or you go to a home where they have access to firearms. Or you arrest them in front of their house in a neighborhood where maybe their neighbors are on their side, and they come out and now there's a big riot."

Experts explained that it is difficult to estimate how much longer illegal migrant criminals are out on the street as a result of the lack of communication between local and federal law enforcement agencies.

Jon Feere, director of investigations with the Center for Immigration Studies, told Blaze News, "The truth is, ICE doesn't even know when a detainer that's not honored results in the release of an alien."

Feere explained that in states like California that do not honor most detainers, ICE will not be notified that the state denied its request. In those instances, the suspect is released from custody without ICE notification.

"They'll just ignore the request altogether," Feere said.

ICE does not learn that its detainer was ignored and the suspect was released from local custody until that individual commits another crime and pops back up on the agency's radar, Feere explained.

He noted that California's policies also prohibit its sheriff's departments from participating in the 287(g) program. According to the ICE's website, this program "enhances the safety and security" of communities by authorizing the agency "to delegate to state and local law enforcement officers the authority to perform specified immigration officer functions under the agency's direction and oversight."

The program allows ICE to train sheriffs on how to identify criminal illegal migrants in their prisons and begin the paperwork process to prepare the individual for removal.

"Those are critical law enforcement partnerships. Sanctuary cities generally outlaw them," Feere remarked. "One of the things that people don't realize is that a lot of these illegal aliens who show up in jails after having been arrested have no records whatsoever. And, as a result, the sheriffs don't know who the person is and ICE doesn't know who the person is until an interview occurs."

Under ICE's Criminal Apprehension Program, officers "actually go and interview some of these individuals in the jails and they will usually admit that they're here unlawfully."

"A lot of sanctuary jurisdictions don't permit ICE to have access to their jails, which is another form of protecting criminal aliens," he said.

Regarding the types of crimes committed, Feere said it could be "almost anything you can imagine."

"It's actually quite shocking that these sanctuaries choose not to honor detainers for aliens who have been arrested for everything from DUIs to carjacking to sexual assaults. These jurisdictions have decided that allowing a foreign national to get away with violating our immigration laws is more important than public safety," he told Blaze News.

What jurisdictions have adopted sanctuary policies?

Many states, cities, and counties across the nation have adopted measures that prevent police from coordinating with federal immigration officials. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, as of April 12, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington have enacted sanctuary policies at the state level.

In Massachusetts, there are eight cities, including Boston, that have committed to shielding illegal migrants from ICE. The influx of new arrivals has caused the state's shelter system to become overwhelmed. A report published earlier this year by WBZ claimed that the state is spending roughly $64 per day to feed each migrant.

Additionally, Massachusetts is the only state in the nation with a "right to shelter" law that requires every homeless family to be provided with accommodations that include refrigeration and basic cooking facilities. Since many overflow shelters do not fulfill this requirement, the state has resorted to contracting third-party vendors to deliver food to migrants, the WBZ report found.

Paul Craney with Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance told Blaze News, "During her tenure as Massachusetts Attorney General, current Governor Maura Healey vigorously pursued the legal case which now actively prevents Massachusetts's local, county, and state law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. At the time, she hailed her win at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court as 'a victory for the rule of law and smart immigration and criminal justice policies …'"

"The victims at the heart of the recent case in the town of Milford likely disagree with her statement," Craney stated, referring to an incident in which an illegal migrant was charged with child rape after a Massachusetts District Court ignored ICE's detainer request, releasing the man back out onto the street.

"The governor and the Massachusetts legislature have the power to fix this dangerous injustice whenever they feel so moved. Federal immigration authorities are tasked with keeping track of recent immigrants and are the organization most in the know as to which, if any, new arrivals may be a threat to the children, people, and property of the people of this country," he stated.

Craney argued that the state's sanctuary policies, which Healey (D) backed, are "actively harming the people of Massachusetts" and creating "a colossal waste in taxpayer money" by forcing ICE to exhaust more time and resources to locate and apprehend criminals.

"It's time for Governor Healey and the legislature to demonstrate that they have some modicum of compassion and empathy for the people being hurt by their inaction and fix the mess they've made," Craney told Blaze News.

Ferguson, an ICE spokesperson with the New York City Field Office, told Blaze News that the agency is hopeful the city's mayor, Eric Adams (D), will reform the current sanctuary policies that prevent the agency from working with local law enforcement.

"ERO New York City will continue to uphold its mission to protect the citizens of New York by removing threats to public safety. We always stand ready to work with our law enforcement partners without condition and welcome Mayor Adams' recent comments about opening the door to cooperation," Ferguson stated.

During a February town hall meeting, Adams said, "Those small numbers [of migrants] that have committed crimes, we need to modify the sanctuary city law that if you commit a felony or violent act, we should be able to turn you over to ICE and have you deported."

Adams has claimed that the city's current laws prevent him from removing migrants that have poured into the city over the last year.

Republican state lawmakers previously proposed legislation that, if passed, would effectively reverse New York City's sanctuary policies.

Anything else?

Fabbricatore stated that migrants are incentivized to relocate to jurisdictions with sanctuary policies.

"Sanctuary policy definitely does not protect United States citizens; it protects criminal illegal aliens," Fabbricatore added. "A lot of these sanctuary cities say that they are protecting immigrants. Legal immigrants don't need protection from ICE because they're doing the right thing. ICE is not going after them. ICE normally goes after those who commit crimes inside the United States. So illegal aliens who, on top of being illegally here, have also committed crimes."

Feere stated that passing legislation that requires sanctuary jurisdictions to honor ICE detainer requests should be the Republican Party's "top priority." He called it "unacceptable" that conservative lawmakers have not already implemented such legislation.

"The issue of sanctuary jurisdictions has gone on for quite some time, and it's amazing to me that Congress hasn't put an end to the nonsense. We have had Congresses where the Republican Party was in control and yet there was not any effort to pass a bill that requires states to honor ICE detainers," he stated. "When you have a situation with states that are choosing to ignore the federal government, our country really starts to fall apart."

"It also frustrates me that the Department of Homeland Security has allowed this to go on as long as it has. There's a saying within DHS, which is that, 'We are one DHS,'" he continued, noting that ICE, Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Transportation Security Administration, and the Coast Guard are all under DHS.

"Why is it that the other agencies within the DHS continue to do business with these states that are undermining one of its sister agencies?" Feere questioned. "Shouldn't these agencies stick up for ICE? And explain to states like California, Massachusetts that you can't pick and choose which part of DHS you want to work with? Either you work with us all, or you don't."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!