New York’s sanctuary policies ‘severely limit state and local law enforcement cooperation with ICE…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) Immigration and Customs Enforcement are trying to take into custody and deport a violent illegal alien who killed a New York resident while drunk driving last month.
The Guatemalan national, Heriberto Perez-Velasquez, was arrested in October by New York State police, taken to the Wayne County jail, and charged with a DUI and then was released. The police claim they notified Customs and Border Patrol when Perez-Velasquez was arrested, according to Syracuse.com, but ICE was never notified.
Perez-Velasquez then killed a man on Nov. 10, 2019 while driving intoxicated once again.
“Had Mr. Perez-Velasquez been detained by ICE after his October 2019, DUI arrest, a life might have been spared,” acting ICE Director Matt Albence said in a statement. “Sanctuary jurisdictions that do not honor detainers or allow us access to jails and prisons are shielding criminal aliens from immigration enforcement and jeopardizing the lives of law-abiding citizens.”
New York’s sanctuary policies “severely limit state and local law enforcement cooperation with ICE,” endangering the lives of public citizens, Albence said.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has gone out of his way to hinder ICE’s enforcement, soliciting the services of a public fund to help illegal aliens avoid federal deportation efforts.
The state’s public-private Liberty Defense Project now helps immigrants facing deportation continue to forestall the process by clogging the judicial system with specious legal challenges.
“New York will continue to stand with all immigrants to ensure they have the full protections afforded under the law,” Cuomo said in a statement.
Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of Citizenship and Immigration Services, said that ICE isn’t the public threat; Cuomo’s policies are.
“[ICE is] ready to just perform their mission, which is to go and find and detain and then deport the approximately 1 million people who have final removal orders,” Cuccinelli said. “They’ve been all the way through the due process and have final removal orders.”
