Florida’s DeSantis Calls on Biden to Resume Trump Immigration Policies
Florida’s DeSantis Calls on Biden to Resume Trump Immigration Policies
BY BOWEN XIAO
April 1, 2021
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he’s sending a letter to President Joe Biden asking him to continue the previous administration’s policy that allowed authorities to deport illegal immigrants in custody who had committed crimes.
DeSantis told reporters on April 1 that the Biden administration is removing detainers from illegal immigrants. Detainers are “critical for ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to be able to identify and ultimately remove criminal aliens who are currently in federal, state or local custody.”
“We’ve already had in Florida a handful of criminal aliens that had finished their sentences and the detainers were removed by the Biden administration,” DeSantis said. “Normally, they would have been transferred to federal custody and removed, and now, the federal government is effectively releasing them into our communities.”
Speaking at the American Police Hall of Fame and Museum backed by a group of sheriffs, DeSantis announced that he is directing the state’s Department of Corrections “to identity all inmates with detainer agreements who ICE is refusing to pick up and develop a process for transferring them to an ICE detention center.”
He also ordered the corrections department to notify the state’s Department of Law Enforcement and local law enforcement “of all instances in which ICE refuses to detain criminal aliens.” He said he wants everything to be documented.
“If ICE is not willing to take custody and remove … and ICE wants them released into our society, then any additional crime that is committed is by definition one that should have been prevented,” DeSantis told reporters.
“It’s a reckless policy … these are convicted felons. If you can’t remove them, then what do you have? Just a complete lawless system? I don’t think any of us want that.”
An immigration policy tracker by the Heritage Foundation has found that Biden has rolled back almost all of former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
Under Biden’s immigration agenda, construction on the U.S.–Mexico border wall was shut down and ICE agents are now limited by narrower guidelines. The Department of Homeland Security had suspended deportations of illegal aliens for 100 days with the exception of those who have “either engaged in or are suspected of terrorism or espionage,” although a district judge has indefinitely banned enforcement of the pause in response to a lawsuit from Texas.
“Over the next 30 days, as many as 50 criminal aliens are set to complete their Florida prison terms subject to detainers by immigration and customs enforcement,” DeSantis said. “That number could rise to over 200 felons within six months. The issue is if those detainers continue to be removed—like they are—there’s going to be no basis for the state to hold them at that point.”
“It would effectively be the federal government releasing these convicted criminals back into the society.”
During the press conference, DeSantis invited two families to speak. The first was Jamiel Shaw Sr. whose son was shot by an illegal immigrant in 2008.
Shaw’s son, also named Jamiel, or “Jas” was shot in Los Angeles by gang member and Mexican national Pedro Espinoza, who had been released from jail a day earlier.
Espinoza, a Mexican national, had previously been booked five times as a juvenile but hadn’t been referred to ICE for deportation.
“He was 17 years old, he knew he had a future, and he was trying to secure it,” the father said at the conference.
“It’s very important that you get them out of here the very first time they commit a crime,” he said, referring to illegal immigrants.
The second family that spoke at the conference was Kiyan and Bobby Michael. Their son was killed in a car crash by a twice-deported illegal immigrant.
Charlotte Cuthbertson contributed to this report.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/florid...s_3758746.html
Ron DeSantis Directs Illegal Immigration Crackdown in Wake of Biden’s ‘Sanctuary Coun
Ron DeSantis Directs Illegal Immigration Crackdown in Wake of Biden’s ‘Sanctuary Country’ Orders
by JOHN BINDER 1 Apr 2021
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is demanding President Joe Biden stop releasing criminal illegal aliens and directing state agencies to notify local law enforcement every time a criminal illegal alien is released in their community as a result of Biden’s “sanctuary country” orders.
During a press conference with Angel Families on Thursday, DeSantis announced directives to state agencies in an attempt to ensure that criminal illegal aliens are not released in Florida communities.
In February, top officials at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency announced sanctuary country orders that prevent agents from arresting and deporting about 9-in-10 illegal aliens who would otherwise be deported.
DeSantis called Biden’s orders a “reckless policy” and a “disregard for public safety and the rule of law” during the press conference and in a letter to the administration.
“These are convicted felons who are here illegally,” DeSantis said. “If you can’t remove them, then what do you have? Just a complete lawless system and a complete open border?”
In his letter, DeSantis writes that potentially 50 criminal illegal aliens could be released into Florida communities following their prison sentences over the next month thanks to Biden’s orders. Over the next six months, DeSantis writes, potentially 200 criminal illegal aliens could be released.
DeSantis writes:
The Biden administration’s abdication of responsibility to enforce America’s immigration laws reflects your disregard for public safety and the rule of law, which our state cannot endorse. [Emphasis added]
As you well know, several criminal aliens were recently released in Florida, at the direction of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who otherwise would have been detained by federal authorities. Dangerous felons were set free into our communities despite federal immigration laws. [Emphasis added]
Over the next thirty days, as many as 50 potential criminal aliens are to complete their Florida prison terms subject to ICE detainers. That number could rise to as many as 200 felons within six months — all confirmed or suspected illegal aliens having been convicted or currently serving in prison. These felons would traditionally be, and are expected to be, transferred to ICE custody. I demand that your administration continue working with our officials to ensure all such felons are detained by ICE until their status is adjudicated, and, if found to be in this country illegally, removed effected. [Emphasis added]
Read the full letter here:
Letter to Secretary Alejand… by John Binder
In addition, DeSantis is directing state agencies to identify criminal illegal aliens in prison and “pursue all legal means available to transfer them to ICE custody upon completion of their Florida prison terms.”
Also, DeSantis is mandating monthly updates to his office from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement on all criminal illegal aliens who have had their ICE detainers lifted before their release dates from prison and when criminal illegal aliens are released in Florida at ICE’s direction.
As part of the directives, DeSantis will require state agencies to notify local law enforcement when criminal illegal aliens are released into their communities as a result of Biden’s orders and begin tracking new crimes committed by those released.
“If ICE is not willing to take custody and remove and ICE wants them released into our society, then any additional crime that is committed is, by definition, one that should have been prevented,” DeSantis said.
The directives come after Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration’s sanctuary country orders and detailed seven cases where criminal illegal aliens were going to be released or had already been released from state prisons because of the orders.
The lawsuit reveals that in less than a month, Biden’s orders had helped criminal illegal aliens convicted of burglary, cocaine trafficking, grand theft auto, heroin trafficking, credit card fraud, and money laundering get released back into Florida communities rather than being deported.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2...ountry-orders/
