Justice Department Issues New Policy Targeting Sanctuary Jurisdictions

Attorney General Loretta Lynch has issued a new policy that could encourage sanctuary jurisdictions to start cooperating with ICE deportation requests. The new policy would give preference to immigration authorities over local or state authorities when a federal prisoner who is wanted for deportation has finished his federal sentence. Immigration officials may defer to state or local authorities, but will take into account their cooperation with federal deportation requests in deciding whether to hand over a prisoner.

“Particularly where we’re dealing with a jurisdiction that is not prone to honoring detainers … our policy is going to be that ICE will instead have the first detainer and that individual will go into ICE custody and deportation,” the attorney general testified before the Appropriations panel on Wednesday. “This may have the effect that there may be local cases that may not be able to be prosecuted because, again, the person will be taken into ICE custody and then deported.”

The new policy would place extra restraints on any city, county, or state that approves sanctuary policies that hinder the deportation efforts of immigration officials.

Doris Meissner, Senior Fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, noted that the policy may not have a significant impact since the majority of prisoners are already in state or local custody, not federal custody.

“As a practical matter and in practice, I’m not sure it has a lot of effect, but it does at the federal level create a better chance that the feds don’t drop the ball or federal officials don’t get charged with dropping the ball,” Meissner said.

The murder of Kate Steinle by an illegal criminal alien last year brought national attention to the safety problems sanctuary jurisdiction policies can have on a community. This would prevent federal illegal alien criminals from being released back into U.S. communities.

You can read more on this story at Politico.