My wife texted me a link to a news story yesterday with this headline: “DOJ threatens to prosecute local officials over immigration enforcement.” It describes a memo released by Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove.
As reported by the Associated Press:
“Bove’s memo directs prosecutors to investigate for potential criminal charges against state and local officials who obstruct or impede federal functions. As potential avenues for prosecution, the memo cites a conspiracy offense as well as a law prohibiting the harboring of people in the country illegally.
“‘Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing and otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands and requests,’ the memo says. ‘The U.S. Attorney’s Offices and litigating components of the Department of Justice shall investigate incidents involving any such misconduct for potential prosecution.’
“‘The most serious charges are those punishable by death where applicable, and offenses with the most significant mandatory minimum sentences,’ Bove wrote.”
I can only assume that this DOJ memo is designed to instill fear in local officials who disagree with the incoming President’s rhetoric on immigration. I can’t speak for my peers across the state and country, but in my case it is not working.
We still live in a country that is governed by a constitution and a system of laws that are enforced by law enforcement agencies and courts. I have found that regularly seeking legal counsel from our Office of Law is a wise practice in these times.
Our administration works well with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). We and they understand that our local police risk their very lives to arrest and prosecute the violent and dangerous criminals that President Trump talks about at his rallies, whether they are native born Americans, documented immigrants, or undocumented immigrants.
We and ICE understand that those offenders belong in jail. It’s much harder to escape from incarceration than it is to find a way back into the country after deportation. ICE wants our police to do that job, and in our county they do it well.
We and ICE also understand that enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws is a federal responsibility. Our police do not interfere in that work. If the federal government determines that ICE does not have the capacity to carry out the function, it can declare an emergency and deploy federal troops. It does not have the authority to deploy local police officers.
Our police do have the authority and the responsibility to detain suspects for whom a judge has written a warrant, and they do so every day. ICE has the authority to request those warrants, but rarely does. ICE can issue its own administrative warrants, but police officers do not have the authority to use them as a reason for detention.
If an undocumented foreign national is serving time in our county jails, ICE is aware of their status and their release dates. The federal Criminal Alien Program establishes a process whereby ICE can request that the inmate be held for up to two days to allow time for ICE to take that person into custody. Anne Arundel County has always cooperated with ICE on these detainers and will continue to do so.
When I took office, our Ordnance Road Detention Center was under contract with ICE to house men and women who were either awaiting deportation or had court cases pending in Baltimore to determine their status. Some had encouraged me to end that contract, so I visited the site and spoke to staff and inmates. Both encouraged me to keep the contract. They said it was the cleanest and best-run site in the area, and was close to where the hearings would take place. The one flaw in the system, I was told, was the difficulty of finding legal representation to ensure due process at the immigration hearings. I made a decision to maintain the contract and to transfer a portion of the significant revenue to organizations that were providing that legal representation.
The ICE field office was glad to hear that we would keep the office open, but was surprised weeks later when an order came down from political appointees in Washington to close the facility. They never explained the order, but we suspected that it was related to our plan to fund lawyers.
Politics, particularly the politics of bullying, has a way of gumming up the gears of public service. ICE was trying to do a job in accordance with the law, and the politicians made it harder. ICE continues to try to do that job, and knows that it must do so in accordance with the law. County governments and their police departments are in the same boat. Politicians should stay in their lane.
Some folks tell me that we should ask our police officers to do immigration enforcement because America voted against immigration. In fact, 32% of eligible voters and 49% of actual voters cast a ballot for Donald Trump in the last election, and I suspect that most of them, and most of the people who voted for Kamala Harris, want violent criminals who came here from other countries deported. But I don’t believe that most of them want to deport hard-working, law-abiding residents of our communities. Economists tell us that doing so would grow inflation and cripple our agricultural, construction, and service industries.
I was not a fan of Ronald Reagan’s trickle down economic experiment, but his amnesty program was exactly what the country needed then and needs now. A path to citizenship is what our economy and our undocumented workers need. They don’t want to be undocumented. They fled places that any of us would flee, they are essential to the health of our economy, and DOJ statistics show that they commit crimes at a lower rate than native-born Americans.
I trust that economic, political, and moral forces will carry us through this era of political bullying, and that dedicated public servants, whether they work for ICE, local police, or Department of Justice, will stay strong, stay brave, and remember that we swear our oaths to the constitutions and the laws of our country, our state, and our county.
So let’s tone things down, treat one another with respect, and abide by the law.
Until next week…