Thread: Which Way, New York?

Which Way, New York?
Will Feds Tolerate Local Interference or Assert Their Authority?

cis.org/nyc
By W.D. Reasoner
October 2011

Summary: New York City (NYC) provides a window into how a lack of local government cooperation can adversely affect the federal government’s ability to enforce immigration laws. This obstruction affects the safety of New York City residents and the rest of the state, even the entire country. It also influences how other jurisdictions interface with ICE. Rather than use tools available to discourage this obstruction, the federal government passively accepts this interference as a fait accompli — even as it has moved recently to sue other states for trying to help with enforcement.

Key Findings

Three-quarters of all foreign-born arrests in the entire state of New York occur in New York City (NYC). In 2008, the latest year for which data are available, local officers arrested 52,827 immigrants in NYC.

For at least 20 years, NYC has had official policies impeding the enforcement of federal immigration laws. City policies prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from receiving notification of arrested aliens before their release from police custody.

In September 2009, NYC’s Department of Correction adopted, and has since maintained, particularly obstructive policies and procedures for immigration officers and agents attempting to access criminal alien inmates housed in its detention facilities. Jail staff are required to follow procedures that actively encourage aliens to refuse to speak with ICE agents.

Since the implementation of these procedures, the number of aliens charged with immigration violations at the city’s main detention facility have been cut nearly in half.

Notwithstanding its lack of cooperation, NYC has garnered millions of dollars each year in federal SCAAP (State Criminal Alien Assistance Program) funds since the program’s inception.

Despite all of the above facts, the federal government has never taken action to overcome the obstacles placed in its way by NYC — either through lawsuits, withholding of funding, or executive action — so that it can perform its job of immigration law enforcement in the most effective and efficient way possible.

Background

An interesting development in recent months has been the emergence of a growing “constituencyâ€

Sanctuary for Illegal Criminals

dailypundit.com
by Bill Quick
October 21st 2011
(many links within article)

Which Way, New York? | Center for Immigration Studies

Under any other administration, the avowed goal of these groups to short-circuit the deportation of criminal aliens would seem quixotic at best, but that doesn’t seem to be the case with the Obama administration. Here are some salient examples:

The Justice Department has filed suit against the states of Arizona and Alabama for enacting statutes to assist the federal government in enforcing immigration law. When asked why they did not file similar suits against states, counties, or municipalities that have enacted sanctuary policies obstructing federal efforts, administration officials have striven, foolishly and to no avail in my view, to distinguish state and local sanctuary policies as somehow acceptable and legally defensible. Such logic could only hold true in a universe existing on the reverse side of a funhouse mirror.

Meanwhile, under ICE Director John Morton — ironically, the agency charged with immigration enforcement in the interior of the United States — the administration has announced its intent to review hundreds of thousands of existing removal cases in which aliens have already been charged in immigration court, with an eye toward purging those deemed of “low priority,â€