illegal aliens

A federal judge in Oregon has ruled that local law enforcement agencies must not comply with ICE detainers, a key tool used by ICE to take custody of criminal aliens for investigation and possible removal. As a result, nine sheriffs in Oregon announced that they would cease honoring detainers and begin releasing any arrested aliens who complete their sentence or bond out of jail before ICE has a chance to charge them.

Judge Janice Stewart's ruling is one product of a years-long campaign waged by legal activists with the support of Obama administration officials. The central issue is whether locals should treat the detainer as something they "shall" comply with, according to the language of the federal regulation, or as a "request". Her decision is particularly controversial and problematic because she went farther than some other federal judges by saying that the ICE detainer is not just a request for local authorities to grant or leave, but that granting the request by holding the alien for ICE is a civil rights violation, thus taking away all discretion from local authorities. Her decision might still be appealed or overturned through legislation, policy adjustments at ICE, or further litigation, but the short-term consequences will make it difficult for those communities struggling to address the problems created by criminal aliens.

The immediate impact is the release of many criminal aliens who will disappear rather than face charges. Some of these aliens will commit new crimes. The sheriff of Multnomah County, Ore., lifted 50 holds on the first day of the new policy and no doubt hundreds more will be released in the coming months. The ICE field office in Seattle, which covers Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, issued more than 7,500 detainers in 2013. We can expect that community groups and sheriffs will be interested in monitoring who is released and what happens as a result.

Stewart's decision affects only Oregon, but it is influential and many other jurisdictions will conclude that, for now, they have no choice but to cease holding arrested aliens for ICE in order to avoid lawsuits filed by local legal aid organizations on behalf of criminal aliens who are able to bond out on their local charges. A few states, including Arizona, Virginia, and New Jersey, may not be affected because they have already passed state laws that prohibit bail or allow higher bails to be set for illegal aliens (although these laws have been the target of litigation as well). Jurisdictions fortunate enough to have 287(g) agreements also should not be disrupted, because they are less dependent on detainers, since the designated officers have the authority to put criminal aliens on the path to removal without waiting for ICE.

The Obama administration has been directly complicit in facilitating this kind of litigation, which strikes a blow at ICE's highest priority task — the identification and removal of criminal aliens. Until recently, ICE's official position was that it expected local agencies to comply with detainers, even though it moved internally to soften the language used on the detainer forms to give locals a basis for refusing if they so choose. Those local partners that do comply have had to fend for themselves in dealing with any lawsuits on behalf of individuals they hold for ICE who turned out not to be deportable, but at least two courts have endorsed the position that detainers can reasonably be considered mandatory and sheriffs should be held harmless if they properly comply.

Enter Dan Ragsdale, the current deputy director of ICE. Several weeks ago, in response to a request for clarification submitted by the California State Sheriffs Association, which has been struggling to reconcile its view that detainers are mandatory with a new California law forbidding them to comply in certain situations, Ragsdale issued the following statement on behalf of ICE, but over the objections of senior career ICE personnel: "[W]hile immigration detainers are an important part of ICE's efforts to remove criminal aliens who are in federal, state, or local custody, they are not mandatory as a matter of law." The California sheriffs are still wondering aloud why Ragsdale made no mention of the federal regulation telling them that they "shall maintain custody" of an alien after a detainer is served.

While this development certainly will make it harder for ICE agents and officers to do their jobs, it does not necessarily mean that interior enforcement will decline any further. ICE need only make some adjustments in the way it requests the transfer of criminal aliens from local police and sheriffs, specifically by issuing warrants of arrest, and providing them as attachments to the detainers. In addition, ICE can revise the detainer form so that it can have more force when ICE has sufficient probable cause to arrest an alien, and serve as a request when that is more appropriate, for example when ICE needs to wait for a conviction. There is no reason whatsoever that ICE should not be able to maintain its current (anemic) pace of removals.

Sheriffs, on the other hand, have good reason to complain, especially if ICE does not follow through with the needed adjustments. Most sheriffs do not wish to return deportable criminals to their communities to continue preying on the people they protect. They have united to fight sanctuary policies imposed by legislatures and governors in California, Maryland, Massachusetts, and other states. Most are perfectly agreeable to cooperating with ICE, but do not want to be held liable or to be stiffed by ICE and DOJ and left twisting in the wind in court in the occasional case where something goes wrong.

Congress can help by increasing funding and creating incentives for 287(g) programs, which the Obama administration has tried to shut down. In addition, Congress should pass the SAFE Act, which cleared the House Judiciary Committee last year and makes detainers mandatory, among other needed reforms. States, too, can enact various types of legislation that would blunt the reach of the Oregon ruling and preserve federal and local discretion to cooperate. Community activists and victims' rights groups also have a role to play, by obtaining information on criminal alien releases from local authorities and making sure that their neighbors and appropriate institutions are alerted. Read more about ICE Policy Change on Detainers Fuels Lawsuits to Obstruct Enforcement

A 25-year-old Hillsboro man was arrested Saturday night after he got into a fight with his girlfriend and fired five shots skyward, police said.

Braulio Navarro-Falcon was engaged in the argument...

During the verbal altercation, Navarro-Falcon pulled a semi-automatic handgun from his pocket and fired the weapon five times into the air, Rouches said....

No one was injured during the incident, Rouches said.

Navarro-Falcon was taken into custody on accusations of unlawful use of a weapon and felon in possession of a firearm, Rouches said. He was lodged in the Washington County Jail, and later posted bail...

According to police and court records, Navarro-Falcon has a previous 2007 conviction of third degree assault, a felony, in Washington County.

NOTE:  (In 2007 Braulio Navarro-Falcon had an ICE HOLD)
  Read more about Hillsboro man, 25, arrested after firing 5 shots skyward during argument, police say

The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office has released two jail inmates who officials were holding at the request of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts said Wednesday ....released suspected undocumented immigrants from custody in the county jail if there is no warrant for their arrest. The move follows a federal judge’s ruling that the county violated a woman’s Fourth Amendment rights by complying with a request to keep her by immigration officials.

The Multnomah County Sheriff's Office lifted 50 holds since the ruling.

U.S. District Court Judge Janice M. Stewart ruled Friday that county officials misinterpreted a request...

The requests to hold inmates in the jail are common, and the county complies...
  Read more about Two released from Clackamas County jail since ruling that county violated woman's Fourth Amendment rights

A man arrested Wednesday night for allegedly shooting a BB gun at a car in Oregon City turned out to be an convicted felon who had been deported to Mexico two years ago.

Jiminez-Barragan provided a fake Mexican driver's license. Police searched the truck and said they found a BB gun, $6,600 in cash and about five grams of heroin. Jiminez-Barragan, 28, then gave police a second phony name. After he was fingerprinted, police learned his real identity.

Jiminez-Barragan was deported more than two years ago and had illegally returned about a month ago, police said. He was convicted in Multnomah County on drug charges.

He also is subject to an immigration hold.

  Read more about Convicted felon deported to Mexico 2 years ago, arrested after shooting BB gun at car

Call it the Jeb Bush, establishment-Republican variation on “they are just looking for a better life” cliché. And let’s just call him “Jeb.”

Apparently American families – of all descriptions – are not a priority for Jeb when it comes to the politics of dutifully providing the business bosses with “cheap” labor. (D.A. King)

In what should be the last words of a viable presidential campaign probe, Jeb defends the victims of borders who illegally enter the remnants of the Republic and take American jobs with the unforgettable words "yes, they broke the law, but it's not a felony. It's an act of love, it's an act of commitment to your family.”

Is Jeb saying that anyone in the world with a commitment to their family should be allowed to live and work in the U.S. as long as they don't plan on felonious activity? If so, it could get very crowded. We already take in more than a million legal job-seekers every year.

Not many Americans should have much trouble closing their eyes and imagining Jeb’s mindless, pandering proclamations coming out of the mouth of any screaming SEIU street protestor carrying a “not one more deportation” placard.

If not a careful explanation of why Marco Rubio took a painful – and likely permanent – nosedive in the presidential polls, somebody may want to forward the current unemployment numbers to the Bush compound. And maybe send along the United States Code regarding identity fraud and theft of Social Security numbers. Or the fact that coming back to the USA after deportation is a felony.

Jeb floated his “so be it” ramblings while at least 20 million Americans who are committed to their families are out of work or underemployed. The day after Jeb’s remarks, the Democrat-controlled Senate passed a bill to again extend unemployment payments for Americans who have been out of work for at least six months.

Apparently American families – of all descriptions – are not a priority for Jeb when it comes to the politics of dutifully providing the business bosses with “cheap” labor.

Call it an exploratory expedition. In publicly supporting the 2013 Gang of Eight amnesty/immigration expansion scam that will never see the president’s desk and putting forth his Chuck Schumer-esqe “it’s an act of love” notion, Jeb set out to gauge the progress of the tireless propaganda work of the amnesty-again coalition. Somebody had to venture out to see if Big Business, Big Religion, “Big Raza”, many in Big Media, the Democrats and the Republican establishment bosses have convinced the GOP’s conservative base that it is time for another amnesty. “Do you believe us yet?” they wonder, “this time, we are really going to secure the borders. But later. Trust us.”

It was big of Jeb to allude to “the rule of law” in his remarks. And to the possibility that the 40 percent or so of the illegal aliens present in the U.S. who are visa overstayers may be “politely” asked to leave. What next, a Jeb suggestion that the “secure the homeland” laws put in place after 9/11 requiring biometric monitoring of temporary visa holder’s departures actually be funded and politely enforced?

Many Americans who love their families suspect that if there were any real intent to secure American borders and enforce our immigration laws, it would have begun on September 12, 2001.

Using information recently released by DHS, Jessica Vaughan at the Center for Immigration Studies notes “ICE released 68,000 criminal aliens in 2013, or 35 percent of the criminal aliens encountered by officers. The vast majority of these releases occurred because of the Obama administration’s prosecutorial discretion policies.”

“The preponderance of the evidence demonstrates that immigration enforcement in America has collapsed. Even those with criminal convictions are being released. DHS is a department in crisis” says Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama.

One can only imagine a Jeb-run immigration enforcement apparatus.

Somebody tell Jeb: According to news reports, in an annual report released this month, "One Nation Underemployed: Jobs Rebuild America," the National Urban League noted that the underemployment rate for African-American workers was 20.5 percent, 18.4 percent for Hispanic workers and 11.8 percent for white workers.

"Many Americans are being left behind, and that includes African-Americans and Latinos who are being disproportionately left behind by the job creation that we see," National Urban League President Marc Morial said. We won’t hear it from the “party-of-the-working man” Democrats, but another amnesty and doubling immigration is not the solution to this shameful crisis.

Neither is Jeb.

Republicans with a commitment to inclusion and victory should keep looking for a presidential candidate. As an act of love.

D.A. King is president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society, which works to control immigration . He is not a member of any political party. Read more about On Jeb’s 'Act Of Love': Republicans Should Keep Looking For A Presidential Candidate

Adelante Mujeres is requesting additional support for Cinthya Garcia-Cisneros, the driver convicted of felony hit-and-run in the Oct. 20 crash that killed two young Forest Grove stepsisters.

...An immigration judge declined to grant her bond last month, a decision that keeps her in custody while her case plays out...

Now leaders of the Forest Grove nonprofit are asking...

1. Request that Kitzhaber pardon her felony convictions...

2. Request that federal legislators intervene ...

"Both letters and calls will be crucial to inspire our elected officials to do the right thing, and to assure them that we will stand behind them should they lend support to Cinthya," Cooke said.

Garcia-Cisneros...had temporary permission to be in the country under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program... The program does not allow for felony and some other convictions.

  Read more about Adelante Mujeres requests support for Cinthya Garcia-Cisneros, convicted in Forest Grove fatal crash