Sanctuary Mayor Once Willing To Go To Jail To Stop ICE Now Says He’ll Work With Agency
A sanctuary city mayor, who once suggested he’d use his police force to stop deportation officers and be willing to go to jail over the matter, is now signaling that he wants to work with federal immigration authorities…
A sanctuary city mayor, who once suggested he’d use his police force to stop deportation officers and be willing to go to jail over the matter, is now signaling that he wants to work with federal Immigration authorities under certain circumstances.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said the city will cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in cases involving violent criminal migrants and will notify the agency of an impending release if ICE makes a request, according to statements Johnston gave to Fox31. The comments follow the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) establishment of a working group tasked with investigating sanctuary jurisdictions.
“The whole state is bound by our state law in this, which is pretty consistent in some of these practices like everywhere in the state, we don’t honor ICE detainers,” Johnston said to FOX31. “If ICE calls and says, ‘Will you hold someone for three more days?’ That doesn’t happen in Douglas County or Yuma or in Denver.”
“A lot of these practices are similar statewide, but we think ours finds a common-sense balance of making sure we’re not having our local police doing federal law enforcement, that’s not our job, we’re not going to do ICE’s job for them,” he continued. “But, if they call for information on folks we have in custody, we’ll let them know when we’re releasing them.”
The comments appeared to come in sharp contrast to his rhetoric immediately following President Donald Trump’s election victory, an outcome which brought the prospect of large-scale deportation operations much closer to reality.