Federal Judge Turns Six States Into Sanctuaries For Criminal Aliens

October 11, 2016

A federal judge in Illinois has recently ordered the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) to stop issuing detainer requests in six states, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Kansas, Missouri and Wisconsin. See Daniel Horowitz, IMMIGRATION INSANITY: THIS FEDERAL JUDGE JUST TURNED SIX STATES INTO SANCTUARY CITIES, Conservative Review, Oct. 11, 2016. Detainer requests are used to request that state and local law enforcement either notify DHS that it is about to release a criminal alien, or to maintain custody of the alien for up to 48-hours for DHS pick-up. DHS detainers are a critical tool created by the federal government to address threats by criminal aliens picked up by state and local law enforcement. This new ruling will only undermine what interior immigration enforcement is left under the Obama Administration, who has ordered that DHS detainers only be issued to a very narrow class of criminal aliens, who the Administration determines to be a national security threat or have already been convicted of a crime.

Listen to the following podcast where IRLI Executive Director Dale Wilcox and Senior Counsel Michael Hethmon discuss this recent ruling with the Federation for American Immigration Reform’s President Dan Stein and Director of Research Matt O’Brien.

Listen here.