According to a recent report released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Boston Field office for the for the staff of the Massachusetts governor, ICE was only able to arrest about half of the 456 deportable criminal aliens that had been arrested in the state over the course of 10 weeks, due to court-imposed sanctuary policies. Massachusetts local authorities' refused to cooperate with ICE, either by not honoring detainers issued by the agency or releasing criminal aliens before ICE was able to issue a detainer.
When ICE issues a detainer request it asks jails to hold a criminal alien for up to 48 hours after they have completed their sentence so that immigration agents can take the suspect into custody. ICE had already determined the criminal aliens, released by local authorities, "immediately amenable" through the Secure Communities program, meaning ICE had cause to detain these aliens and put them into removal proceedings.
The agency used the program to share fingerprints and correspond to subsets of likely deportable illegal aliens that lack legal status, have violated legal status, are fugitives, or have been previously deported.
AG Jeff Sessions criticized Lawrence, Mass., a known center of illegal opioid distribution, for implementing sanctuary policies to protect criminal alien drug traffickers in the area.
"There can be no sanctuary for drug dealers and fentanyl dealers in this country," he said.
For more on this story, see cis.org.
