Fox News learned that United States Attorney for the District of California Bill Essayli’s “Operation Guardian Angel” has been scouring criminal databases to find arrested illegal aliens.
“With this operation, we’re going to be neutralizing California sanctuary state policies,” Essayli told Bill Melugin of Fox News. “We’re going to flood the system with warrants for criminal illegal immigrants who are in county jails; they can ignore a detainer, but they cannot ignore a criminal arrest warrant. They have no choice, they will comply, and if they don’t, if they interfere with our ability to arrest a federal felon, they can expect to face consequences for that.
Melugin witnessed authorities at a Los Angeles prison hand over an illegal alien to ICE officials.
Yes. In Los Angeles, California!
The task force includes representatives from ICE, the FBI, HSI, the DEA, and the ATF in downtown Los Angeles.
The video shows them looking at records. Melugin wrote:
If they’ve come back to the US after a deportation, they’ve committed a federal felony under 8 USC 1326 known as “illegal re-entry”.As soon as the task force ID’s an alien booked into a local jail who has a previous deportation, they seek a federal criminal warrant on them for felony re-entry, signed off on by a federal judge.Unlike an administrative ICE warrant or ICE detainer request, these criminal judicial warrants for 8 USC 1326 *CANNOT* be ignored by sanctuary jurisdictions, and California’s sanctuary state law cannot shield aliens from these criminal warrants. Instead of releasing the alien inmates and ignoring ICE detainers, jails must hand the aliens over to the Feds, regardless of sanctuary policy.
Essayli wants the experiment to expand to other sanctuary states and cities.
“This is the safest way for us to get criminal illegal immigrants,” explained Essayli. “Get them while they’re still in state custody, where they’ve been searched. They have no weapons, and we can do a safe transfer.”
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