ICE: The history of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has been given an integral responsibility in overseeing US border and national security. Here's what you need to know about the vital federal law enforcement agency, ICE.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has ignored a plea by federal immigration authorities to cooperate with them on keeping criminal illegal immigrants off the streets, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official told Fox News on Monday -- part of a continued stalemate between the Trump administration and liberal cities on the matter.
“It is disappointing that we have not heard from the mayor’s office since the letter was delivered on February 13. In the last three weeks alone, ICE has arrested 112 criminal aliens and public safety threats released by the city under the Bail Reform Act," a senior ICE official said, referring to a controversial law enacted by New York state reducing bail use. "This is about public safety, not politics. For the safety of all New Yorkers, ICE implores the mayor’s office to find a way to help us help them.”
In the letter, acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Matt Albence wrote to the Democratic mayor, calling for greater cooperation between his city and ICE on crime.
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“Although immigration policy remains an issue that is subject to vigorous debate in our country, the need for federal and local enforcement to cooperate to ensure that criminals are kept off the streets should not be a polarizing subject,” Albence said. “New York City officials and ICE still share a common mission: keeping the communities that depend on us safe.”
In the letter, Albence requests “that you reconsider the range of ordinances, orders, practices, and policies that New York City has put in place that make it harder for the law enforcement officers who serve both New York City and ICE to carry out its respective duties.” He also requests that de Blasio contact him if he wishes to discuss the matter further.
But ICE says that there has been silence from Hizzoner since that letter was sent. The letter was sent the same week de Blasio described ICE as an “illegitimate force” after an ICE officer was attacked while trying to serve a deportation order on an illegal immigrant in New York City.
“This is about ICE acting as a wing of the Donald Trump campaign committee. This is about demonizing immigrants and people of color. That’s what’s really going on here,” he said on a local radio show.
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De Blasio has taken a far-left stance when it comes to immigration enforcement and stood firm on continuing New York City’s “sanctuary” policies. Such policies limit local cooperation with immigration authorities and bars law enforcement from complying with ICE detainers -- requests that ICE be alerted when an illegal immigrant is being released from local custody.
The dangers of such a policy were highlighted by the case of Maria Fuertes, a 92-year-old who was sexually assaulted and killed, allegedly by an illegal immigrant who had been released from custody in November despite an ICE detainer.
“The tragedy in all of this is the fact that this could have been avoided, had there been no sanctuary law,” her granddaughter Daria Ortiz said at an emotional speech last month. “The tragedy is my grandmother is not ever going to be here again.”
Proponents of sanctuary cities have argued that it makes communities safer by encouraging illegal immigrant victims of crime or witnesses to cooperate with law enforcement.
“The Trump administration’s scare tactics destroy trust in law enforcement. The day our police ask for immigration status is the day people stop reporting crimes & sharing information. It’s the day we stop being the safest big city in America. We won’t let that happen,” de Blasio said in January.
In his letter to de Blasio, Albence noted that ICE’s New York City Enforcement and Removals Office issued detainers on 7,526 subjects who had criminal histories including 3,500 assaults, 1,500 DUIs, 1,000 sex crimes, 1,000 weapons offenses, 500 robberies and 200 homicides.
“However, ICE’s data show that during the same period, at least 4,000 detainers were declined, and our local leadership advises that New York City actually honored just 25 detainers,” he wrote.
He also called the claims that ICE would arrest crime victims who are cooperating with them “a blatant falsehood.”
“The individuals we seek your assistance in keeping off the streets are the perpetrators of crime in your city’s custody, and not those who have been victimized by criminal aliens,” he wrote.
The ICE boss went on to take aim at de Blasio’s angry rhetoric regarding federal law enforcement.
“For the good of the communities we are sworn to serve, I implore you to cease the inflammatory rhetoric which does nothing to help the people of your city, and instead, work with us for the greater good of all,” he said. “There should be nothing divisive about ICE exercising its federal law enforcement authority on the exact same individuals upon whom NYPD has exercised its own authority.”
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The letter, and de Blasio’s dismissal of it, come amid a sustained battle on immigration between New York as a whole and the Trump administration.
The Department of Homeland Security ended New York's participation in Global Entry and other such programs last month after New York’s Green Light Law -- which grants illegal immigrants drivers’ licenses -- went into effect, citing a measure that excludes state DMV agencies from sharing information with federal immigration authorities.
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