President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued new guidelines that will prevent many arrests of criminal illegal aliens in or near courthouses.
A memo issued by Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Tae Johnson and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Troy Miller direct ICE and CBP agents to not arrest criminal illegal aliens in courthouses unless they are:
- A national security threat
- An imminent risk to any person
- A hot pursuit, posing a public safety threat
- An imminent risk to evidence in a criminal case
Experts told Breitbart News that the ICE guidelines equate to a “sanctuary courthouses” policy where most criminal illegal aliens on agents’ radar will be shielded from arrest while they are in a courthouse.
“There’s not another law enforcement agency in this country that’s been banned from arresting in courthouses,” former Acting ICE Director Thomas Homan told Breitbart News. “Agents ought to be able to arrest aliens in courthouses because it’s safer for the public, it’s safer for the community, it’s safer for the agents, and it’s safer for the individual, because everyone must go through a metal detector before entering a courthouse.”
Center for Immigration Studies Director of Policy Jessica Vaughan said in sanctuary jurisdictions, ICE agents are already banned from taking custody of criminal illegal aliens in local jails, and so they use courthouses as a way to safely arrest individuals.
With the latest Biden memo, Vaughan says that enforcement avenue will be gutted.
“Now the courthouses will be sanctuaries too. Not only that, even immigration courts will be off-limits for arrests — and those are the laws that ICE is supposed to enforce,” Vaughan said.
“It’s absurd, like saying the county sheriff can’t make arrests in the county courthouse,” Vaughan continued. “This is the continued dismantling of immigration enforcement in the interior, including against criminal aliens.”
The memo specifically cancels Homan’s 2018 ICE memo that made clear that courthouses are not sensitive locations which agents should steer clear of when making arrests of criminal illegal aliens. On the contrary, Homan said, courthouses are one of the safest locations to make arrests.
“The guy is here illegally, in violation of immigration law. There is no prerequisite that you have to commit another crime to have federal immigration law enforced against you,” Homan said. “They’re ignoring federal statutes.
“This policy is going to result in more criminal illegal aliens walking in our communities,” Homan continued. “It’s going to increase ICE agents’ risk of getting hurt on the job.”
Already, the Biden administration has issued “sanctuary country” guidelines in which ICE agents are prevented from arresting and deporting illegal aliens unless they are terrorists, known gang members, or have been recently convicted of an aggravated felony.
The orders have resulted in criminal illegal aliens being released into American communities who would have otherwise been turned over to ICE agents for arrest and deportation. Likewise, because ICE cannot hold detainees without a clear path to deportation, the number of criminal illegal aliens in federal custody has been cut by 70 percent, and the number of illegal aliens arrested has been reduced by 80 percent.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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