Thread: IL: Senators ask Napolitano, Holder to penalize Chicagoland County for Defying Immigr

Senators ask Napolitano, Holder to penalize Chicagoland county for defying immigration officials


By Admin
The Daily Caller
February 25, 2012 in Corruption, Illegal Immigration, Immigration


The death of a Chicago man killed by a drunk driver who was in the United States illegally has become an unlikely catalyst in the national policy debate over immigration. Eight members so far of the Senate Judiciary Committee have written to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder on January 30, asking them both to immediately cut off federal funding currently sent to Cook County, Illinois.


This undated photo shows the three McCann brothers. From left to right, Kevin McCann, Brian McCann, and the late Denny McCann



That funding, disbursed through a federal grant program called the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, pays localities for costs incurred in processing criminal aliens when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement wants them detained before they can post bail.


Cook County received $2.29 million last year, $3.4 million in 2010 and $4.4 million in 2011.


Yet a Cook County ordinance forbids police from cooperating with those requests, called “detainers,” from ICE officials.



“It is ironic and frustrating that the Administration has filed suit against several states for passing laws that aim to protect their citizens and help enforce immigration law while essentially turning a blind eye to jurisdictions that actively promote safe harbor policies and the killing of U.S. citizens,” the senators wrote to Napolitano and Holder.


“If the Administration truly believes immigration law is only to be enforced by the Federal government, as it has argued before several courts, it must now adhere to that position and take action against jurisdictions that actively thwart effective Federal enforcement of the Immigration and Nationality Act.”


On January 4, ICE Director John Morton sent Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle his own written warning that his ordinance causes significant conflicts with the federal government. The county, he said, had ignored all 268 ICE requests to detain criminal aliens instead of setting their bail.


“In addition to undermining local public safety, the Ordinance also violates federal law,” Morton wrote, adding that it “also inhibits ICE’s ability to validate Cook County’s annual request for State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) funding.”




(RELATED: Read the senators’ letter to Napolitano and Holder and ICE’s letter to Cook County, Illinois)



The case that snapped the federal government to attention involved Denny McCann, killed in 2011 by a criminal alien named Saul Chavez, who was driving drunk. When Chavez was arrested for the same offense in 2008, he told a police officer that he was in the country illegally.


Chicagoland County | Defying Immigration Officials | Eric Holder | The Daily Caller