Jeh Johnson: We Need to End Sanctuaries ‘Certainly’ for ‘Most Serious Criminals’ — We Had a Program that Worked

On Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson stated that local law enforcement should work with immigration officials “to detain and send back certainly the most serious criminals among us” and that in the Obama administration had a program that got “local law enforcement to work with ICE again, particularly on those who are the most serious felonies.”

Johnson said, “In 2014, we had a program called Secure Communities that did exactly this. It became politically and legally controversial. In 2014, I revamped the program to encourage local law enforcement to work with ICE again, particularly on those who are the most serious felonies. And we got something like 80% of local communities to start working with us again. Only like two major cities refused. One of them was the City of Philadelphia. I got Mayor Nutter (D) to work with us. His successor, on the first day in office, tore up the agreement. And I’ll never forget talking with a member of the City Council in Philadelphia, who said to me, why should we send him back? He’s already done his time here in the United States. That’s not the point. He’s a convicted felon. So, we ought to be able to have local law enforcement work with ICE to detain and send back certainly the most serious criminals among us. That’s not a hard proposition.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett