As many Democratic-run major cities across America double down on resisting the Trump administration’s illegal immigration crackdown, law enforcement agencies in Texas’ two largest cities are now alerting ICE of encounters with illegal immigrants.
This comes after ICE filed administrative warrants in the National Crime Information Center to arrest and deport some 700,000 illegal immigrants.
The Houston Chronicle first reported that police officers in Texas’ largest city will call federal immigration authorities whenever they encounter an illegal immigrant with a federal administrative warrant against them.
In line with this policy, Houston Police Department officers are directed to communicate with ICE once an illegal immigrant with an administrative warrant is detected. Officers are then directed to discuss options for transferring the illegal immigrant to ICE custody, which could include holding them on the scene until ICE arrives.
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According to the Chronicle, this policy is already being implemented. The outlet reported that Jose Armando Lainez Argueta, a 40-year-old Salvadoran national illegally present in the country, was arrested by ICE after his name came up in the system during a routine traffic stop by Houston police.
Meanwhile, local outlet News 4 San Antonio reported that the police in San Antonio, the second-largest city in Texas and seventh largest in the U.S., will also be following a similar policy, alerting local ICE officials of encounters with illegal immigrants who come up in the National Crime Information Center system as having federal administrative warrants against them.
The outlet obtained an email sent to San Antonio Police Department officers in which officers were told to “contact the ICE Law Enforcement Service Center … and request an ICE officer come to the scene to arrest the individual.”
The email said the types of illegals who may come up in the system include previously deported felons, aliens who have been previously ordered deported or removed, and individuals with civil immigration detainer orders against them.
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The San Antonio Police Department did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment by the time of publication.
However, the department’s sister agency, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, told Fox News Digital that while it does not directly alert ICE of illegal immigrant encounters, it does have a policy of coordinating with ICE and regularly has immigration officials visit county jails to conduct interviews.
Bexar Deputy Sheriff Johnny Garcia told Fox News Digital that ICE officials enter county jails to conduct interviews as often as “every three hours.”
The sheriff’s office also gives ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officials 48-hour notice of when an illegal immigrant with an immigration detainer is set to be released from jail.
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“They’re visiting the jail just to make contact with any new persons that may be arrested. So there’s no obstruction in that regard,” he explained. “They come in just like any other officer of law enforcement official who has access and authority to enter the jail for official purposes. They, too, have that ability to come into the jail and conduct their business as needed.”
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Garcia told Fox News Digital that their policy of cooperating with ICE is simply in line with all state and federal laws.
“We do what is required of us by the law,” he said.
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An ICE spokesperson told Fox News Digital that though the agency “does not comment on the agency’s internal methods for operational security reasons,” he said the use of administrative arrest warrants is a “vital tool to protect public safety and reduce the amount of taxpayer resources needed to fund law enforcement at all levels of government.”
“ICE is leveraging all available law enforcement resources to aggressively pursue these aliens to restore law and order in our communities and integrity to our nation’s immigration laws,” he said. “By taking advantage of all lawful means to carry out our critical mission, it not only bolsters public safety, national security and border security, it also lessens the threat that our officers face each day when they bravely go out into the community to apprehend these violent criminal aliens.”
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