Adding to the growing caselaw about the constitutional infirmities of immigration detainers, a federal district court in Texas concluded this week that a detainer lacking probable cause of criminal activity violates the Fourth Amendment. Trujillo Santoyo v. United States, No. 5:16-cv-00855-OLG, slip op. (W.D. Tex. June 5, 2017). This case involved an individual arrested on criminal charges that were dismissed without a conviction. While lawfully jailed in the Bexar County Adult Detention Center during the pendency of the criminal case, ICE issued an immigration detainer against Trujillo [...]
Public Safety and the Fourth Amendment Work Together
By Christopher N. Lasch and César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández On Monday, the Colorado Senate is expected to consider a bill to prohibit cities and counties from limiting their role in enforcing federal immigration law. Senate Bill 17-281, the Colorado Citizen Protection Against Sanctuary Policies Act, relies on two fallacies perpetuated by the Trump administration in its campaign against so-called “sanctuary” cities. First, President Trump claims sanctuary jurisdictions endanger the public. S.B. 281 likewise claims that sanctuary policies are “contrary to the safety” of Coloradans. This [...]
ICE’s new immigration detainer policy remains legally flawed
Today, ICE issued a new policy regarding use of immigration detainers. Sometimes called immigration holds, detainers are requests by ICE that a local law enforcement agency continue holding someone in the LEAs custody. The purpose of continued confinement is to give ICE time to pick up the individual. The policy announced today instructs immigration officers, including local police deputized as immigration officers pursuant to a 287(g) agreement, to issue detainers against anyone who they have probable cause to believe is removable from the United States. Though couched in carefully crafted [...]
Constitutional collision in Colorado anti-immigrant bill
By César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández and Christopher N. Lasch The virulent tone of immigration rhetoric that propelled Donald Trump to the presidency has come to Colorado. A Republican state legislator proposes to bar cities or local governmental units from limiting their cooperation with ICE. And then he goes where even President Trump hasn’t dared: criminalizing the very act of voting in favor of limiting cooperation with ICE. The proposal, House Bill 17-1134, titled the “Colorado Politician Accountability Act,” is a constitutional train wreck. If our students submitted this for a course, [...]
ICE enforcement actions: Something old, something
ICE is in the streets. President Trump is tweeting away. And rumors are flying. None of this is surprising. On the campaign trail, President Trump turned his consistent demonization of migrants into a cornerstone of his victory. Since taking office, he has not relented. On Sunday, the President tweeted, “The crackdown on illegal criminals is merely the keeping of my campaign promise. Gang members, drug dealers & others are being removed!” Meanwhile, word-of-mouth reports and social media are supplying a stream of reports about immigration enforcement actions. Many turn out to be [...]
Must local police work for ICE?
Donald Trump has made no secret of his desire to attack communities that resist his hateful rhetoric about migrants. In particular, he has repeatedly stated that he will work with Congress to cut off federal funding to so-called “sanctuary cities.” Like with much else, he hasn’t bothered to tell us what he means by a sanctuary city. That term is thrown around so much that without a working definition, it is hard to make sense of which cities might come under attack by a Trump anti-sanctuary move. As I wrote in Crimmigration Law, though “sanctuary policies” take a variety of forms, “they all [...]
20 years ago this week…
On September 30, 1996, crimmigration law became firmly embedded in the modern United States. That day, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) took effect. Adopted by a Republican Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton, IIRIRA stands as an example of bipartisan willingness to ratchet up the severity of violating immigration law. With Friday’s twentieth anniversary on my mind, I thought it worthwhile to revisit IIRIRA’s specific provisions and contextualize it within a larger string of strong-armed legislation that launched the crimmigration era. First [...]
Obama’s new DHS budget reflects security focus
President Obama released the final budget request he will make to Congress earlier this month and the pitch for DHS is peppered with costly security measures that fall in line with the department’s existing operations centered on security concerns. At almost $41 billion, the DHS budget request covers everything from FEMA operations to the nation’s principal immigration law enforcement bodies, ICE and CBP. U.S. Dep’t of Homeland Security, Budget-in-Brief: Fiscal Year 2017, at 1 (2016). Combined, the budgets for ICE and CBP comprise almost one-third (30.3 percent) of DHS’ total budget, including [...]