The White House has reportedly requested that sanctuary cities in the United States cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to help deport unlawful migrants who have committed crimes, prompting a retort from businessman and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
Many politicians have voiced their concern with sanctuary cities housing unlawful migrants without oversight, with Ramaswamy stating in a social media post on Thursday that the United States should “end funding for sanctuary cities.”
“End blanket asylum policies. Deport illegals. Bring back mental health institutions, with involuntary commitments where required,” he said in the post.
Sheldon Evans, an associate professor at St. John’s University School of Law, explained that sanctuary cities have policies that allow local law enforcement to refuse to cooperate with federal immigration agencies.
“A sanctuary city is just basically a local jurisdiction that, you know, for different policy reasons has decided that they’re not going to share immigration information with the federal government,” Evans said, per Fox 5 New York.
The ongoing crisis at the southern border has resulted in a surge of unlawful migrants traveling to sanctuary cities.
While speaking about these sanctuary cities on Fox News last month, a spokesperson for the White House said the administration would “welcome local law enforcement’s support and cooperation in apprehending and removing individuals who pose a risk to national security or public safety.”
“When a local jurisdiction has information about an individual who could pose a threat to public safety, we want them to share that information with ICE,” the spokesperson added.
These comments came not long after it was revealed that the alleged killer of a University of Georgia student, Laken Riley, had previously been arrested and released by New York City police. The unlawful migrant was released before ICE officials could request a detainer or “immigration hold.”
An ICE detainer is essentially a request by the agency that local law enforcement keeps an unlawful migrant detained for an additional 48 hours so that federal officials can determine whether to take that person into custody and begin the deportation process.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams recently called for the city to adjust its sanctuary city policies, stating, “If you commit a felony, a violent act, we should be able to turn you over to ICE and have you deported,” ABC News reported.
While it is currently unclear whether sanctuary cities will begin offering more support to ICE, Texas has undertaken several initiatives to deal with the increase in unlawful crossings, including busing unlawful migrants to sanctuary cities. According to a press release from the Office of the Texas Governor, the Lone Star State has transported more than 104,200 unlawful migrants to cities outside Texas since April 2022.
