CA: Sanctuary Cities to blame for Jail Increase of Illegals
Incarcerated aliens in California increase, Sanctuary Cities to blame, says columnist
Published: Saturday, April 23, 2011, 7:46 PM
The Jersey Journal
By JOE GUZZARDI
A new Government Accountability Report found that the number of criminal aliens incarcerated in California rose to 102,795 in 2009, a 17 percent increase since 2003. According to federal auditors, more than one in four of the illegal immigrants imprisoned in California are locked up for drug offenses. The average inmate has been arrested a shocking seven times at an average $34,000 annual cost.
The facilitator that allows criminal aliens to roam free is the sanctuary city policy which bans law enforcement officers and municipal employees from asking about an individual’s immigration status. Hundreds of cities across the United States, including some of the largest, have declared that illegal immigrants can live without the fear that local authorities may alert ICE of their whereabouts. Even Washington D.C., the nation’s capital and U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement’s headquarters is a sanctuary. Others include New York, Chicago, Denver, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and---well, you get my point.
In 1979, Los Angeles adopted one of the first sanctuary city policies when it issued an internal memorandum that stated: “Officers shall not initiate police action with the objective of discovering the alien status of a person. Officers shall neither arrest nor book persons for violation of title 8, section 1325 of the United States Immigration code (Illegal Entry).â€
