WASHINGTON – Aggressive immigration tactics by the trump ad ministration during the last several months appear to be triggering new actions from state and local leaders
During a CNN Town Hall Wednesday, Mayor Jacob Frey, D, Minneapolis said his local police had their own jobs to do
“We are required to respond to 911 calls to prevent murders and homicides and carjackings from happening. I want our police officers spending every single second focused on that.”
He added, “Are we going to enforce federal immigration law? No, we don’t now. We haven’t for decades.”
On Friday, Gov. Kathy Hochul, D, New York, introduced the “Local Cops Local Crimes act” which would block agreements made between local police departments and immigration and customs enforcement.
“We have retail theft. We have guns on the streets. We have gangs. We have drugs. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that our law enforcement has enough on their hands. Our das have enough to do without turning into deputized ICE agents.”
She and others insist they are more than willing to assist ICE and other federal agents, in the case of violent criminals from other countries.
But there are questions about why ICE continues to demand help and protection from local law enforcement, especially after a massive budget increase.
A decade ago, ICE operated on a $6 billion budget and now has about $85 billion, following the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Other states, including Maryland, Massachusetts, Illinois and Virginia are also considering similar actions.
Such actions though, are now meeting swift rebukes from Republicans, including Sen. Ron Johnson, R, Wisconsin, who appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
“When they’ve detained a criminal that’s committed violent crimes or whatever, they need to notify ICE and leave that individual in jail, so ICE can pick them up in the jail where it’s safe for everybody concerned.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R, South Carolina, said on Fox News Sunday he those state and local leaders should be held responsible.
“What am i going to do? I’m passing a bill that says, if you’re a Governor or you’re a state official and you have in your custody someone who’s broken federal immigration law and you do not turn that person over under existing law of the United States, you could go to jail. You’re committing a crime.”
This tug of war between the federal government and local governments has both sides claiming the other is acting in a manner that violates the Constitution.
As with many questions, it may be one eventually answered by the U.S. Supreme Court.
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