When it comes to dealing with the impacts of illegal immigrants on cities and counties, there’s a right way and a wrong way. In San Francisco we see both a wrong-way city and a wrong-way county.
By way of example, San Bernardino County has discovered that San Francisco, a self-designated “sanctuary city”, was until recently dumping illegal-alien juvenile criminals into group homes in San Bernardino County. Read about it here.
Illegal immigrants are by definition law-breakers, but a significant number of them also break other laws of the United States. These offenders often find themselves in our jails.
Of course Congress hasn’t summoned the courage to lead on this issue – or at least lead in the right direction. So starting with the aftermath of the 2005 controversy over the McCain-Kennedy bill, the idea of local governments taking control of their own public safety relative to illegal-immigrant criminals began to resonate. Since the federal and state governments won’t send the right message – that illegal immigration (especially when committed by people who commit other crimes as well) won’t be tolerated – some counties are taking it upon themselves.
According to a report Monday in the San Bernardino County Sun, the County Sheriff’s Department, in coordination with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, deported more than 7,000 suspected criminal illegal aliens in the past two years. Read it here. In fact, these numbers may increase with the Board of Supervisors’ recent approval of my plan to add two-way videoconferencing for custody specialists to interview suspected illegals in remote holding facilities throughout the nation’s largest county.
This program delivers many benefits: It frees up space in overcrowded jails, and it helps ICE open cases on illegals, subjecting them to prosecution. It also allows the county to better account for its incarceration costs for federal reimbursement. However, last year the feds only coughed up a half million dollars of the county’s $24 million in costs.
San Bernardino isn’t the only county that screens illegal immigrant suspects and detainees, but our numbers are impressive. So if you’re here illegally and you commit a crime, after you serve your time, Sheriff Gary Penrod will give you a one-way trip back into the arms of law enforcement in your home country. I think that’s a loud-and-clear message, and the right message, for a county to send.