Attorney General Mark Herring has issued his opinion that local police need not hold illegal immigrants waiting for ICE to pick them up. Local sheriffs can defy requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement when they have asked a locality to retain a suspected illegal immigrant. Herring has said that he will eliminate these ‘ICE detainers’ in Virginia.[read_more]
Good idea, just ignore those pesky federal law enforcement requests.
Virginia Beach Sheriff Ken Stolle had asked Herring for an opinion when he learned that Sheriffs in other states had been been held responsible by federal courts when they released people who ICE had asked that they detain. Stolle said this about Herring’s ruling,
“I understand some people think it’s a political football, but I couldn’t disagree more,” Stolle said. “You can’t detain someone without the legal authority. You can’t do that in America. And I’m proud that you can’t do that in America.”
What part of ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT does he not understand?
Senator Dick Black (R-13) stated his opinion on Herring’s ruling,
“Attorney General Mark Herring’s opinion makes the bizarre claim that a federal detainer doesn’t provide authority to detain an illegal immigrant. The Code of Federal Regulations contain specific authority for local law enforcement to detain immigrants for up to 48 hours. Attorney General Mark Herring is the most lawless attorney general in Virginia’s history. This opinion does not interpret the law, it defies the law. Detainers are almost always issued for immigrants accused of criminal offenses. If Virginia refuses to honor federal detainers, it will simply leave sexual predators and other criminals to walk the streets in our communities. Mark Herring has made it clear that he cares more about alien criminals than he cares about American voters.”
Once again, Mark Herring has ignored the laws and instructed Virginians to ignore federal laws. It’s become quite a habit with him. Any law he doesn’t agree with is not to be enforced in Virginia, including that Oath of Office he took when he swore to uphold the laws of the Commonwealth. Why did he bother when he had no intention of enforcing the laws of Virginia or the nation?
20 comments
markherring is just mini me ericholder
Not
standing up for Herring, but there is a great deal more to this.
The
law allows a 48hr detainer. So, you can round them up, but then the tax
burden is on us (the local jurisdiction) to house them for that period.
With local budgets, such as in Loudoun, always an issue, for example,
the BOS only controls 30% of the tax based income for
distribution–would our BOS approve an additional 500K+ for enforcement,
admin, detention? No way would they. Here is an example; the Sheriff’s
Office, each year, requests 1.5M+ to fund overtime as this is the actual
expenditure. Even knowing this, the BOS only currently funds them
$800K… so if the BOS can’t even take care of its own, no way are they
going to fund detention of illegals for ICE. And as tax payers, what
would we rather fund–our patrol deputies or some illegals to have 3
hots and a cot for 2 days?
Equally,
if ICE does not request a further hold and essentially take over
detention (and pay the local jurisdiction for that housing), then, if no
pending criminal charges, the detainee must be released–period. Hold
them longer and law suits from special interest groups pour in which
Loudoun taxpayers have to pay to defend.
On
the flip side, ICE has limited budgeting and are certainly not getting
more from this administration or even the new Congress–so a local
jurisdiction can run enforcement all they want and notify ICE that they
have one or one thousand in custody, this does not mean, in the least,
that ICE has the desire or funding to pick them up for further detention
or deportation. Deeper, ICE can’t just transport a detainee back to the
country of origin–that country has to accept them back.
Fairfax
has an interesting albeit ineffective means of dealing with illegal
detainees. Years ago they implemented a bond system where the detainee
can post a nominal bond of several hundred dollars and be immediately
released (they simply don’t have the facilities to house them, temporary
or otherwise). While this brings in extra cash (bond forfeiture) and
resolves the overcrowding, Fairfax has outstanding bench warrants for
over 5K of these detainees who never show back up to see if ICE wanted
to hold them.
It’s a massive but very complicated problem.
Let’s
go a bit further–being an illegal alien (without legal documents to be
in the US) is NOT a criminal offense. It is only punishable by civil
action. Think of that for a moment–its not truly illegal to be here
illegally so how in the hell do you hold them “legally”?
They are guilty of a civil offense (punishable by a fine), not a crime (punishable by fine/prison). US Code offenses include:
USC
TITLE 8 > CHAPTER 12 > SUBCHAPTER II > Part VIII > § 1323
makes it unlawful to bring anyone into the country who does not have a
passport or visa. Penalty: a *civil* penalty of $3,000 fine per person.
TITLE
8 > CHAPTER 12 > SUBCHAPTER II > Part VIII > § 1324a makes
it unlawful to knowingly hire, recruit or refer anyone who is here
illegally. Penalty: a *civil* penalty of not less than $250 and not more
than $2,000 for each unauthorized alien.
So,
with all of this–is Herring right, wrong or do we overlook all of this
and say, well federal law is federal law–even though we all complain
that we really don’t want the feds telling us what to do locally.
Good exposition of the facts on this issue. I’m no supporter of AG Herring but this approach is being employed throughout the country and not just liberal leaning states. It clearly depicts how non functioning and broken are immigration system is today and the untenable position ICE operates in as an enforcement agency. US immigration policy needs to be rebuilt from the ground up a task this Congress is likely NOT up to.
Thanks for saying what I said about case law.
Credit rightfully goes to you for bringing it up!
How about an opinion on Dick Black’s quote next?
Senator Black is correct on his points, the fed detainer does provide authority, detainers are almost always issued (there were over 10K ignored in ’14 by state an local jurisdictions simply because they can house and feed these people nor keep them UNTIL ICE decides to pick them up–which could be months), and by not holding them so ICE can facilitate the administrative process to deport them, then certainly, those with criminal backgrounds (typically given a detainer request) will be released back into the US.
That said, its like a huge shell game without securing the borders, they are moved around, you may not see them for a while, but an 85% chance you will when they find a way to come back in.
Sorry, I will clarify. I meant about Black’s “red meat toss” of…
Currently, the detainers ask state and local law enforcement agencies to hold arrested undocumented individuals for 48 hours – regardless of the severity of the crime. But there are NO legal consequences for a failure to comply with an ICE detention request. Regardless of your opinion on the “correctness” of this action many communities across the US are doing this today without penalty. Where the serious problem arises regarding public safety is when this type of noncooperation injunction is interpreted by state and local law enforcement agencies as a pass to not detain illegals with known criminal records or existing outstanding felony warrants. Over the past several years there have been numerous publicized examples of lack enforcement directly endangering and at times leading to citizen deaths due to illegal individuals with known multiple DWI, drug distribution, gang related or sexual predation backgrounds freely walking the streets. Sadly recent history has demonstrated even if these individuals are turned over to ICE there is no guarantee they will be removed from our streets via incarceration or deportation under Obama’s mandates. Not having read Herring’s opinion its difficult to completely understand what he is advocating here regarding his interpretation.
Let me get this straight: the AG who refused to defend and refuses to enforce real marriage in Virginia — based in part upon his disregard of his duties as AG and his ethical duties as an attorney, and presumably with the fig leave of his corrupt interpretation of Article VI of the Constitution’s “Supremacy clause” — now says that local law enforcement officials are under no obligation to honor Federal law enforcement officials’ request?
Gotcha.
Oh, and here’s a newsflash, Kenny: an ICE request IS “legal authority.” What an a**clown!
No, it’s actually not.
Well thank you for that detailed, authoritative comment. Except you’re dead wrong.
I shall clarify. The “request” is from legal authority, but it is only a request. It’s not an lawful order.
So, why can’t he be held accountable for not upholding his oath, besides the ejection/election cycle?!
An ICE detainer is a request and not a criminal warrant. Case law cited to support Herring’s legal opinion says that by means of the 10th amendment, the federal government can’t tell state law enforcement how to operate. If you believe that the 10th amendment rightfully handcuffs the federal government, you can’t have it both ways.
Black tries the “sexual predators and other criminals to walk the streets in our communities” to throw red meat to the crowd. That may work to some readers here, but it doesn’t influence me.
ICE isn’t plucking immigrants they happen see out of a grocery store line. If they have someone in custody, it’s almost always because they have committed a crime. Herring is an activist Attorney General plain and simple.
This isn’t a matter of ICE making the arrest/detention themselves.
Maybe Herring didn’t read the job description before running for Attorney General. All he seems to do is is ignore Virginia’s laws. Herring clearly wants to run for governor and is making sure he checks off each special interest box…homosexual marriage voters – check, illegal immigration voters – check, etc. Since Lt. Gov. Northam can’t break our laws so it puts him at a big advantage because Herring can make big headlines breaking our laws and the left cheers and applauds.
Thank you, Virginia voters!