Court Strikes Down Indiana Sanctuary City Seeking to Protect Illegal Aliens
Court Strikes Down Indiana Sanctuary City Seeking to Protect Illegal Aliens
by JOHN BINDER 3 May 2021
A court struck down the sanctuary policies of East Chicago, Indiana, ruling that they violated a statewide ban on sanctuary jurisdictions that seek to protect criminal illegal aliens from arrest and deportation.
Late last week, Judge Thomas Hallett of Indiana’s Lake County Superior Court ruled that the sanctuary policies adopted in East Chicago — in response to President Trump’s pro-enforcement agenda — violated the state’s 2011 law that bans sanctuary jurisdictions.
“We are pleased that, after extended litigation, the court has recognized the obvious fact that such ordinances are illegal in Indiana,” attorney James Bopp, Jr., who represented residents Greg Serbon and John Allen, said in a statement. “There must be no more such ordinances in Indiana, and those in existence are clearly in violation of Indiana law.”
The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), which also represented the plaintiffs in the case, had originally helped craft Indiana’s statewide ban on sanctuary jurisdictions, which requires local law enforcement to cooperate with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
“Sheltering illegal aliens from immigration authorities not only flagrantly violates duly-enacted Indiana law, but represents a serious public safety and national security risk,” IRLI Executive Director Dale Wilcox said in a statement. “When cities such as East Chicago insist on putting the interests of illegal aliens above those of their own citizenry, they have to be stopped, and we are pleased the court did just that.”
Last November, Lake County Superior Court struck down Gary, Indiana’s sanctuary policies in a similar ruling. In that case, IRLI and Bopp successfully argued that the city had violated the statewide ban on sanctuary jurisdictions with its “Welcoming City” ordinance.
The city can now appeal the trial court’s decision to the Indiana Court of Appeals.
The case is Serbon v. City of East Chicago, No. 45D03-1805-PL-000045 in the Lake County Superior Court.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2...ty-in-indiana/
