The sanctuary city of Los Angeles, California, is bragging about its policy protecting nearly 800 criminal illegal aliens from arrest and deportation by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency last year.
A report issued by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) reveals the extent to which city officials impose a strict sanctuary policy to shield criminal illegal aliens from being turned over to ICE agents, even when they are arrested for local crimes.
In 2022, the LAPD received 783 detainers from ICE — requests that criminal illegal aliens be turned over to the federal agency for arrest and deportation. In every case, the ICE detainer was ignored and likely hundreds of those in police custody were directly released back into the community.
LAPD officials claim public safety is their “top priority,” despite the sanctuary policy.
“Our ongoing focus is to ensure the victims and witnesses are not afraid to contact the police, report crime or become witnesses as necessary, regardless of their immigration status,” LAPD officials said.
Sanctuary city proponents, like the LAPD, often claim the policy is necessary to ensure illegal alien crime victims report such crimes to the police. Research, though, has shown that sanctuary policies do not boost crime reporting among illegal aliens.
The report comes as the Los Angeles City Council recently moved to codify its sanctuary policy into its local ordinances. Already, city officials are required to abide by California’s sanctuary state policy.
California, today, has the nation’s largest illegal alien population, with nearly 3.3 million illegal aliens residing across the sanctuary state. This is an illegal population larger than the resident populations of 20 states, including Nevada, Idaho, Arkansas, Kansas, New Mexico, and Iowa.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.