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Rep. Unveils Bill to Deport All Illegal Aliens During Pandemic

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Rep. Matt Gaetz unveiled legislation that would force the government to deport all illegal immigrants when a national emergency because of a communicable disease is declared.

“Democrats are taking advantage of a national pandemic by working to advance their radical agenda at the expense of Americans’ safety and well-being,” the Florida Republican tweeted on Wednesday. “The PANDEMIC Act puts Americans first by requiring that all illegal aliens be deported during a pandemic.”

Democrats are taking advantage of a national pandemic by working to advance their radical agenda at the expense of Americans’ safety and well-being.

The Protect American Nationals During Emergencies by Mitigating the Immigration Crisis Act was created in response to a bill put forward by Democrats that would release all detained illegal immigrants that are not deemed a public safety risk. (Read more from “Rep. Unveils Bill to Deport All Illegal Aliens During Pandemic” HERE)

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Democrats Introduce Legislation to Release Detainees and Stop ICE Enforcement

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Democrats are introducing legislation that, if signed into law, would mandate the release of illegal aliens in detention and stop enforcement measures against a large number of aliens living unlawfully in the United States.

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal introduced the Federal Immigrant Release for Safety and Security Together (FIRST) Act on Monday. While many Democratic members of Congress have urged the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for a rollback of enforcement measures amid the coronavirus pandemic, this bill marks one of the first instances where they are turning such concerns into legislative action.

“Detention centers are like a ticking time bomb — they are severely at risk for a COVID-19 outbreak, considering the close quarters in which detainees are housed and a population with much higher rates of underlying health issues,” Booker said in a Monday press release.

He continued: “We have an obligation to do everything we can to prevent the spread of this deadly disease, and that means moving people out of detention centers when they do not pose a public safety risk.”

The FIRST Act would release most immigrants out of detention facilities and stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from targeting at-large illegal aliens who are “not deemed a significant public safety risk” during the coronavirus health emergency. (Read more from “Democrats Introduce Legislation to Release Detainees and Stop ICE Enforcement” HERE)

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H-2A, H-2B Foreign Workers Not Tested for Coronavirus Before Entering U.S.

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Foreign workers brought to the United States on the H-2A and H-2B visa programs, through a fast-tracked process by the State Department, will only undergo additional medical screening if they have symptoms of the Chinese coronavirus, Breitbart News has learned.

As jobless claims for Americans have reached more than ten million in just weeks, the State Department announced waivers for H-2A and H-2B foreign workers. The plan, spearheaded by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, allows American businesses to more quickly bring foreign workers to the U.S.

Between the H-2A visa program, for foreign agricultural workers, and the H-2B visa program, for foreign nonagricultural workers, more than 350,000 additional blue-collar foreign workers are imported to the U.S. labor market annually. Despite this year’s record unemployment, hundreds of thousands of H-2A and H-2B foreign workers are expected to take American jobs.

In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, these H-2A and H-2B foreign workers will continue to only undergo the existing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) screenings, a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokesperson told Breitbart News.

The procedure means DHS will not require that each H-2A and H-2B foreign worker be tested for coronavirus before entering the U.S. Instead, those showing symptoms of coronavirus “will be referred to DHS medical contractors, the CDC, or local health authorities for enhanced health screening,” the CBP spokesperson said in a statement.

(Read more from “H-2A, H-2B Foreign Workers Not Tested for Coronavirus Before Entering U.S.” HERE)

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House Democrats Introduce Bill Giving Coronavirus Aid to Illegal Aliens; Pelosi, Mcconnell Clash Over Next Coronavirus Bill

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By Washington Examiner. House Democrats introduced legislation Friday that would allow illegal immigrants to receive money from the coronavirus relief package.

California Rep. Lou Correa and two other lawmakers introduced the Leave No Taxpayer Behind Act that would amend the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package, according to the Daily Caller.

“I was appalled to learn hardworking, taxpaying immigrants were left out of the $2 trillion CARES Act,” Correa said in a statement Friday.

“By casting out immigrants, we are placing some of our most vulnerable residents in grave danger. Every individual taxpayer, irrespective of citizenship status, needs government assistance now.” (Read more from “House Democrats Introduce Bill Giving Coronavirus Aid to Illegal Aliens” HERE)

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Pelosi, Mcconnell Clash Over Next Coronavirus Bill

By The Hill. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are publicly at odds over a potential fourth coronavirus package.

The two leaders, whose public relationship has been tense in recent weeks, are taking different tactics on follow-up legislation and sparring through the media on next steps to address the devastating economic and health effects of the pandemic.

The mixed messaging, which comes as lawmakers are out of town until at least April 20, underscores the looming challenge of keeping the congressional response to the coronavirus bipartisan. The first three bills passed with overwhelming support on both sides of the aisle.

Pelosi has held near-daily calls with reporters and moved aggressively to outline what she views as top priorities for Democrats in the next measure: transportation, free coronavirus treatment, more money for states, and other issues such as worker protections and boosted paid family and sick leave.

“The coronavirus is moving swiftly, and our communities cannot afford for us to wait. House Democrats will continue to work relentlessly and in a bipartisan way to lift up American families and workers to protect their health, economic security and well-being today and throughout this crisis,” Pelosi said Friday. (Read more from “Pelosi, Mcconnell Clash Over Next Coronavirus Bill” HERE)

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While Americans Are Locked up Without Judicial Review, Courts Grant New Rights to Criminal Aliens!

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Where are the ever-meddlesome courts when you need them?

As Americans are placed under house arrest, local governments are spying on citizens, and every clause of the Bill of Rights is violated, we are told that governments are simply exercising their enormous police power to preserve public health. As such, there is barely a peep about lawsuits against these draconian and often overbroad measures. Yet at the same time, criminals and illegal aliens continue to get standing in court to sue for their freedom of movement. Orwell could not have written a better plot.

We are moving closer to martial law in this country, as the president has taken over industries under the Defense Production Act, states are issuing travel restrictions on other states, and snitch lines are being posted to spy on fellow citizens. The ever-powerful courts, as the supposed guardians of civil liberties, are nowhere to be seen, except for allowing illegal aliens to violate our sovereignty and for criminals duly convicted of crimes to be set free.

Consider the following:

Last Monday, the Supreme Court allowed two criminal aliens deported decades ago to reopen their cases to potentially overturn their deportations. Despite the clear statutory bar on judicial review, Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh joined with the other liberals on the court to ignore both our nation’s sovereignty and Congress’ power to strip jurisdiction from the courts. Only Justices Thomas and Alito dissented. Thus, while Americans are confined within their homes or banned from traveling from certain states, criminal aliens can get standing to sue to travel back across our international border! This decision will open a Pandora’s box of countless terrible criminal aliens deported since 1996 to reopen their cases.

A federal judge in the Southern District of New York ordered the release of 10 criminal aliens from an ICE detention facility in New Jersey (outside her jurisdiction), contending that they were “medically compromised.” In addition, Judge Dolly Gee, the same woman who was so instrumental in spawning the public health crisis at the border last year, has ordered HHS to “make continuous efforts” to release children from custody who are currently being held at Office of Refugee Resettlement facilities. So, the same unilateral authority given to executives to confine Americans under the guise of public safety is now given to both the executives and courts to release people who don’t belong in this country. Something doesn’t add up.

The Montana Supreme Court ruled that local police cannot hold an illegal alien burglary suspect for 48 hours so ICE can pick him up on immigration charges. We are now told there is quite literally nothing a local government cannot do to restrict the movement of citizens and indiscriminately shut down businesses of Americans, even when they don’t engender large gatherings. Yet, somehow, they can’t assist in enforcement of federal immigration law, as they do so with many other federal laws.

On Friday, the Ninth Circuit ruled in a nationwide class action suit that all those bogus asylum seekers being held pending their credible fear determination must be given bond hearings for potential release. Again, while Americans are locked up, they get to be released. What is so shocking is that statute says (8 U.S. Code § 1225(B)(iii)(IV)) they SHALL be detained during the credible fear determination and cannot be released. Moreover, Congress in 1996 (8 U.S.C. § 1252(f)(1)) explicitly blocked all lower courts from issuing class action injunctions in this context.

Judges throughout the country are ruling that criminals must be released during the epidemic, even where the elected officials have opted not to do so.

We all understand the broad powers of a state to quarantine people to prevent the spread of diseases. But if that is true, then by a factor of a million, the federal government has the national security and sovereignty power to prevent the entry and release of aliens as well as the release of criminals without judicial intervention to protect public order. The courts can’t have it both ways – remain silent on overly broad quarantine laws against peaceful Americans, while restricting the executives of this nation from enforcing laws against illegal aliens and criminals.

Something is not right here. How can we take this national emergency seriously and believe the science behind lockdown policies (when they’ve failed in Europe and when Asia succeeded without them), when this same fascist federal and state juggernaut is somehow reduced to rubble when it comes to acting against illegal aliens and criminals?

Let’s review the outcomes from the COVID-19 crisis:

Most sweeping restrictions, surveillance, and confinement of Americans indefinitely without due process in the history of America? Check!

Endless welfare, debt, and spending? Check!

Mass release of criminals? Check!

More foreign workers as a time of record unemployment? Check!

More rights for illegal aliens to come and remain here? Check!

Why is it that every policy outcome from this crisis is a long-standing liberal priority, even when the several outcomes contradict the rationale underlying some of the others?

Something very dark is afoot here, and it’s time for the citizenry to begin asking questions. That begins with convening state legislatures to return the government to we the people. (For more from the author of “While Americans Are Locked up Without Judicial Review, Courts Grant New Rights to Criminal Aliens!” please click HERE)

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It Took Chinese Coronavirus to Finally Make Illegal Immigration ILLEGAL

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Over 21,000 were flooding small-town American hospitals and stretching their resources to the limit. Agents were getting sick. They were also coming for surgeries, and we were paying for it. No, I’m not talking about Chinese coronavirus. I’m describing the public health crisis at our border thanks to what was essentially a court-driven invasion exactly this time last year. Yet our government refused to simply enforce our sovereignty, no matter how bad it got. It’s only now due to coronavirus that the DHS is finally enforcing our sovereignty.

Let’s face it: Most of our public policy is not directed by the rule of law but by the signaling of the media’s lack of virtue. The media, with their excessive panic-driven narrative, have driven governors to near-martial-law actions restricting movement of citizens. Thus, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) finally feels it has the ability to at least enforce our border laws against people who have no right to be here.

On Friday, the White House announced that all unauthorized aliens caught crossing illegally or coming without proper documentation will face immediate return to their home countries. No processing, no endless court cases, no detention, no games. Straight-up enforcement of our sovereignty. Why exactly can’t we expect our government to do that all the time?

Last year, I must have written several dozen articles detailing the president’s inherent constitutional and delegated authority to turn away those who seek entry to this country under any circumstance. Yet no matter how bad the situation got for America’s security, including the straining of our hospitals and the concern of communicable diseases (4,200 exposed to mumps), one excuse after another was given as to why we somehow had to indulge bogus asylum claims.

It’s truly hard to understate the degree of public health crisis when you have 1 million people coming from third-world countries in Central America and elsewhere around the world, with hundreds of thousands of them being released into our country immediately without quarantine and incubation. We will never know how much of the resurgence in measles, mumps, whooping cough, and TB in this country is due to this and prior influxes. Yet the CDC never seemed to be concerned.

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last March, former acting CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said during his testimony, “Migrants travel north from countries where poverty and disease are rampant,” and large numbers of them “may have never seen a doctor, received immunizations, or lived in sanitary conditions.” Randy Howe, head of operations for CBP’s Office of Field Operations, testified that “their health can be aggravated by the physical toll of the journey.” He elaborated:

In many cases, they arrive at our southern border already exhibiting symptoms of a health issue. … Close quarters on trains and buses that smugglers procure for moving them through Mexico can hasten the spread of communicable diseases. All of these factors leave migrants vulnerable to serious medical complications.

Shockingly, we went another half a year through this massive influx without enforcing our sovereignty. It wasn’t until last week that Trump finally turned them back. The administration invoked 42 U.S. Code § 265 authority “to prohibit, in whole or in part, the introduction of persons and property from such countries or places as he shall designate in order to avert such danger” as communicable diseases.

A Washington Examiner report claimed CBP officers were continuing to let in nonessential persons at ports of entry despite the order to the contrary. Is this the deep state sabotaging the order?

I spoke with a senior DHS official and a White House policy official, and they both confirmed that, in general, the order is indeed being implemented. Illegal aliens without documentation are all being turned around immediately, and that includes the so-called unaccompanied alien minors. The only ones who are not being turned back immediately, according to my sources, are those who are not from Mexico or Central America. But even those are being flown back by ICE immediately to their home countries.

As for the travel between the ports of entry, my DHS source confirmed that nobody without documentation is being let through. “Yes, we are obviously trying to keep our commerce open, so if there is someone who works at a local McDonald’s, we definitely want to keep them working here. We use the same inspection standards that airports are using, no more, no less.”

Thus, conservatives should be pretty happy with the results at the border now. The issue is how long it took us to get here and whether this will continue. While Democrats are using coronavirus to remake America, this administration should at least use it to make illegal immigration illegal permanently. No more lawfare. (For more from the author of “It Took Chinese Coronavirus to Finally Make Illegal Immigration Illegal” please click HERE)

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Sanctuary County: Police Interrupt Illegal Alien Rape in Progress

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Sanctuary jurisdictions like Montgomery County, Maryland, have become a magnet for MS-13 and illegal alien rapists. But unlike the coronavirus, this “epidemic” is completely avoidable.

Last summer, so many illegal alien rapists were released by sanctuary Montgomery County that it sparked a fight between DHS officials and local politicians. Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli even challenged county executive Mark Elrich to a debate and referred to the wayward county as “Loco in MOCO.”

In the latest case last Thursday, local police arrested Jose Lopez-Gonzalez, 35, an illegal alien from El Salvador, for raping a semiconscious woman in an office building stairwell in Wheaton, Maryland. WJLA’s Kevin Lewis obtained police documents describing the graphic details.

“Lopez-Gonzalez was on the top of [the victim] who was naked from the waist down,” police wrote in court documents filed late last week in Montgomery County District Court. “[The officer] advised that he initially yelled at Lopez-Gonzalez to get off [the victim] but that he had to physically pull him off her because he was still engaging in sexual intercourse.”

Lopez-Gonzalez is being held without bail after police charged him with rape and assault. Otherwise, Montgomery County police, pursuant to county policies, would likely be forced to release him without honoring the ICE detainer. That’s what happened last week in Boston when an illegal alien who was accused of raping a drunk woman in a similar incident was released onto the streets. Luckily, ICE found him before he could victimize anyone else.

According to ICE, Lopez-Gonzalez was previously deported to El Salvador in 2007 and 2010.

The lack of a fixed deterrent at the border and in the interior incentivizes these people to come back. Every day, when CBP posts reports about catching previously deported sex offenders, just remember that there are numerous others they fail to catch, and we never hear about them until they commit a crime in an American city.

ICE also told WJLA that Lopez-Gonzales is believed to be associated with MS-13, an international criminal street gang. Montgomery County has an epidemic of gang members and rapists among the illegal alien population from Central America. Last month, a 20-year-old illegal alien was arrested in Montgomery County for raping an 11-year-old girl. The suspect attended high school with girls much younger than him.

Despite the gang and crime problem from Central Americans who self-traffic across the border as unaccompanied teens, the DHS still has not shut down the resettlement of UACs. Not even the coronavirus has prompted the government to turn back UACs.

According to Maryland court records, Lopez-Gonzalez was charged for drugs in 2007 and pleaded guilty to assault and sexual assault in 2011. Clearly, when someone like this is incentivized to return twice to Montgomery County and remain such a threat to women in the community, we are not properly enforcing our immigration laws.

As grim is things look with the Wuhan coronavirus, the pandemic will eventually subside. But the criminal alien crisis fueled by sanctuary cities will not go away on its own. While we collectively engage in social distancing to pre-empt the spreading of the virus, we should be able to count on our government to engage in distancing from other countries’ criminals. (For more from the author of “Sanctuary County: Police Interrupt Illegal Alien Rape in Progress” please click HERE)

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Litigation Invasion: Losing Our Border One Lawsuit at a Time

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Imagine you are a liberal judge on the federal bench. You know that the entire political system, which includes all three branches of government and both political parties, vests you with unlimited power to dictate policy with an injunction. Regardless of the law, Constitution, rules of standing for a judicial case, past and recent Supreme Court precedent, political fallout, or national security consequences, you can declare an opinion and have that policy unquestionably become “the law of the land.” Why wouldn’t you try your hand at being a judicial version of Kim Jong-un?

At some point, we should stop blaming the judges for legislating with impunity and start blaming the other branches for not only ceding that power, but actively giving effect to the judges’ usurpations of law.

On Friday, the Ninth Circuit, after illegally granting standing to illegal aliens who never entered our country, ruled that the Trump administration can’t return bogus asylum-seekers to Mexico. This is a policy Trump worked out with the Mexican president. This is exactly why the Supreme Court said in Mathews v. Diaz (1976) that “decisions in these matters [immigration] may implicate our relations with foreign powers” and therefore, these “decisions are frequently of a character more appropriate to either the Legislature or the Executive than to the Judiciary.”

The “remain in Mexico” policy is largely responsible for bringing monthly border numbers back down to 35,000 from 140,000 last summer, when the policy was first implemented. The minute the court issued the ruling, and before it later agreed to temporarily stay that ruling, there was a rush on our border in El Paso. The danger of a mass migration at our border during a global pandemic cannot be overstated.

Moreover, Central American governments have already warned us that among the caravan members are people wanted for homicide, kidnapping, extortion, and terrorism. Some felons are known members of the transnational gangs MS-13 and 18th Street.

No judge has the power to trigger such an international incident. At what point will the president finally say “enough is enough” to illegal rulings creating standing to sue and a right to immigrate for caravans?

The Trump administration routinely asserts its powers as an independent branch of government to ignore congressional subpoenas, a practice numerous presidents from both parties have used on a regular basis. Yet lower court judges can even decide border and foreign policies without any opposition?

In reality, a judge has no power to demand that foreign nationals be brought into the country. Judges can grant relief to a plaintiff, for example, by vacating a conviction. They can get government off the backs of an individual citizen. They can’t, however, demand that the executive branch take action to bring in more people at the border. That simply is not a justiciable issue for a number of reasons.

Undoubtedly, White House lawyers will tell the president to just stay the course and continue appealing to the Supreme Court. But they are missing the point. You can’t govern the country with your opponents winning on a strategy of death by a thousand lawsuits. The Supreme Court has already upheld the president’s power to deny entry under 8 U.S.C. §1182(f) in crystal clear terms. That opinion, in itself, was merely upholding a 1993 opinion that affirmed the president’s right to block entry, even in the context of asylum claims.

Yet the open-borders advocates are still coming back for more disruptions of our border in numerous ways.

Consider the following:

On Thursday, a federal judge in Washington state ruled that Trump can’t use funding for the border that was originally earmarked for a naval base in the state. Now judges appropriate money too! This issue was already litigated twice and went before the Supreme Court to be reversed in California and then in Texas. But this has not deterred another judge from issuing an injunction, nor will it deter the next liberal judge.

The travel ban, which was so strongly upheld by the Supreme Court, is half dead because the administration is still deterred by endless lawsuits. In fact, a judge recently ruled that USCIS must hand over more documents related to the travel ban. What happened to Trump v. Hawaii?

While the Supreme Court finally rolled back the insane injunctions on the public charge rule, there is still new litigation to try to pick away at its implementation.

The Supreme Court has upheld the concept of “expedited removal” for over 20 years, a statute that bars courts from hearing certain deportation cases. Yet the lower courts had no problem violating the law by hearing the case anyway … and ruling against the law!

At the same time judges were inviting the world to invade our border, another district judge ruled that Ken Cuccinelli’s appointment as acting USCIS director was illegal and that every decision he signed is void. Talk about a judicial veto power never mentioned in the Constitution!

Forget about Ilhan Omar’s bill to abolish immigration enforcement. The courts are doing it for free and without any backlash. But they only have the power that the other branches allow them to wield. When will there be a turning point against judicial usurpations? Will it take another border crisis? (For more from the author of “Litigation Invasion: Losing Our Border One Lawsuit at a Time” please click HERE)

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Ninth Circuit Reopens Border, Blocks Donald Trump’s ‘Return to Mexico’ Policy; Smuggling Tunnel Dug by Hand Discovered at U.S.-Mexico Border

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By Breitbart. The ACLU has persuaded three judges in the far-left Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to block the hugely successful ‘Migrant Protection Protocols’ border policy, even though the policy has played a critical role in reducing the inflow of migrants.

The same panel also declared that border agents must process claims for asylum made by migrants who are caught trying to sneak over the border fence far from the formal Ports of Entry.

John Sandweg told Axios.com:

The timing couldn’t be much worse for the Administration,” according to President Barack Obama’s ICE director. “If this decision is going to trigger increased flows at the border, the coming months are the time of year when you would expect to see a spike in the numbers.”

The two decisions — if accepted by a large panel of judges and by the Supreme Court — punch a nationwide hole through the border rules. The decisions will help the cartels, coyotes, and worldwide migrants to again cooperatively overwhelm U.S. border defenses and courtroom process and rush millions of migrants into U.S. job markets, housing markets, and K-12 schools. (Read more from “Ninth Circuit Reopens Border, Blocks Donald Trump’s ‘Return to Mexico’ Policy” HERE)

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Smuggling Tunnel Dug by Hand Discovered at U.S.-Mexico Border

By New York Post. An incomplete smuggling tunnel was discovered by authorities at the Arizona-Mexico border — the 126th underground pathway found by border agents in that area since 1990, officials said.

US Customs and Border Protection agents, along with Mexican authorities, located the tunnel that originated at a drainage facility in Nogales, Mexico, and extended 30 feet into Nogales, Arizona, CBP said in a press release.

Described by authorities as a “rudimentary” tunnel, the hand-dug pathway had no shoring, ventilation or lighting. Its depth was about 20-feet.

“U.S. authorities will continuously monitor the area until they remediate the tunnel,” CBP said in the release. (Read more from “Smuggling Tunnel Dug by Hand Discovered at U.S.-Mexico Border” HERE)

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Illegal Alien Criminal Released by Chicago Rearrested for Sexually Assaulting 3-Year-Old

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Last year, Chicago police posted a video suggesting that immigration status is in line with gender and race as identities that don’t matter to their officers. Sadly, it matters a lot to a three-year-old who was allegedly sexually assaulted by a career criminal illegal alien who could have been removed from the country just months before the incident if not for Chicago’s recalcitrant policies.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Christopher Puente, 34, confessed to luring a three-year-old girl into the bathroom at the River North McDonald’s, pulling off the girl’s pants and underwear, and sitting her on his lap.

“He said that the victim called out ‘Daddy, Daddy,’” said Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy about the horrific incident. “And so he covered the girl’s mouth.”

Like most criminals of this magnitude, this was not his first rodeo. According to the Sun-Times, “Puente has a lengthy criminal record, having served several stints in prison for theft and burglary. He currently faces a misdemeanor battery charges for allegedly touching a woman inappropriately and then shoving her while downtown.”

But the article omits the most important detail. Puente, according to ICE, is an illegal alien from Mexico who was previously deported and could have been removed again last year had Chicago police honored the detainer.

Thus, unlike the gender or race of a suspect, immigration status matters a lot. If Chicago cooperated with ICE, this alleged sexual assault and possibly the prior assault on a woman could have been prevented.

This man, like thousands of other illegal aliens, is committing countless preventable crimes because not only are they barely locked up on domestic criminal charges, thanks to “criminal justice reform,” they are not turned over to ICE for removal.

“In June 2019, ICE lodged an immigration detainer with the Chicago Police Department on Puente, who has several felony convictions and a prior removal, after he was arrested for theft,” said ICE in a press release this morning. “That detainer was not honored and on Feb. 19, 2020, Puente was once again arrested, except this time it was for sexually assaulting a 3-year-old at a fast food restaurant.”

“How many more victims must there be before lawmakers realize that sanctuary policies do not protect the innocent?” asked Robert Guadian, field office director of Chicago Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). “Puente should have been in ICE custody last year and removed to his home country. Instead, irresponsible lawmaking allowed him to walk free and prey on our most vulnerable.”

On Feb. 20, 2020, ICE filed an immigration detainer with Cook County Jail after Puente’s sexual assault arrest. Thankfully, the suspect is being held without bond because if he did post bail, the county would still not honor the detainer, even after such a horrific criminal charge.

According to ICE, Puente was previously deported in 2014 and also had felony convictions in 2011, 2012, and 2017.

Puente is not an anomaly. In fiscal year 2019, Cook County declined more than 1,070 detainers. There is no way of knowing how many others like him are reoffending and harming Americans because, as ICE noted in the release, “Since ICE does not have access to standard Illinois law enforcement databases, the agency cannot account for all the aliens who have been arrested, released and arrested for additional crimes.”

Statute (8 U.S. Code § 1373) makes it unlawful for a state or city to “prohibit, or in any way restrict, any government entity or official from sending to, or receiving from, the Immigration and Naturalization Service information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual.”

Just this week, the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security published a report showing that 17,000 criminal aliens arrested for crimes and released in contravention to ICE detainers remain at large in this country. In total, there were 58,900 declined detainers between October 1, 2013, and September 30, 2019, 70 percent of which were eventually captured by ICE at a great cost in manpower.

However, the scope of the problem is getting worse. In FY 2016, there were 3,686 declined detainers. In FY 2019, there were over 16,000. As the report notes, “Arresting violent offenders at large [not in jail custody] requires even more resources to ensure officer safety.” This prevents them from removing more illegal aliens, including violent criminals.

Yet after thousands upon thousands of the worst criminal aliens have been released throughout the country, there is still no effort by Congress to better enforce the laws. (For more from the author of “Illegal Alien Criminal Released by Chicago Rearrested for Sexually Assaulting 3-Year-Old” please click HERE)

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