On Friday, February 6, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a statement urging California Governor Gavin Newsom and “Sanctuary California” not to release back into California communities “33,179 criminal illegal immigrants, including murderers, sex offenders, and drug traffickers.”
The announcement revealed that California currently detains 33,179 foreigners, who have committed crimes including 399 cases of murder, 3,313 assaults, 3,171 burglaries, 1,011 robberies, 8,380 drug crimes, 1984 weapon crimes, and 1,293 sexual offenses.
According to the announcement, since January 20, California has released 4,561 criminal illegal immigrants, with crimes including 31 murders, 661 assaults, 574 burglaries, 184 robberies, 1,489 drug crimes, 379 weapon crimes, and 234 sexual offenses.
Assistant Secretary of DHS, Tricia McLaughlin, urged Newsom and his government in the announcement to “stop this dangerous madness, and commit to enforcing ICE’s arrest warrants for over 33,000 crime-committing illegal immigrants in California.”
She pointed out that “with unified cooperation, we can restore law and order in America; seven out of the top ten safest cities in the U.S. are already cooperating with ICE enforcement.”
The announcement listed the criminal cases of 10 offenders (including two women), four from Mexico and the rest from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Iran, Armenia, and China. Four are currently detained, three have been released, and three have been deported.
The announcement included a letter from Todd Lyons, Acting Director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under DHS, to California Attorney General Rob Bonta. The letter urged Bonta to prioritize the safety of Americans and cooperate with ICE in apprehending and detaining the aforementioned over 33,000 criminal illegal immigrants.
In the letter, Lyons referred to the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in the “U.S. v. Lucas case” (2007), supporting the use of administrative arrest warrants to apprehend foreigners with final deportation orders. The court ruled that the use of such warrants by the Correctional Services did not violate the rights protected by the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The letter emphasized that “the privacy expectations of any foreigner subject to a final deportation order must be balanced with the significant interests of the federal government in enforcing immigration laws. When federal officials arrive with a valid administrative search warrant at the residence of a foreigner subject to a final deportation order and have reasonable grounds to believe the person lives there, their reasonable privacy expectation decreases… (thus) ICE officials can enter the residence of the foreigner with final deportation orders and an administrative search warrant.”
The letter concluded: “ICE and the American people once again urge California to cooperate with the enforcement of ICE’s detention warrants, bringing the most heinous criminals to justice, and make America safe again.”