ICYMI: ICE tells California to pound sand as agents arrest two illegal immigrants in ‘defiance of state law’

By Jon Dougherty

(TNS) Throngs of President Trump’s supporters have been waiting and waiting for his administration to push back against the Democrat Left’s attempts to prevent federal immigration authorities from doing the jobs they were congressionally mandated to do, and that day appears to have finally arrived.

In a little-noticed story published by the Los Angeles Times, ICE agents arrested a pair of illegal aliens in a Northern California courthouse in ‘defiance’ of the state’s “sanctuary law.”

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Under the state’s law, ICE and other federal immigration authorities are required to obtain a warrant before they can seize illegal immigrants on courthouse grounds.

The paper and other ‘mainstream media’ outlets reported that ICE agents “flouted” the state law in doing their jobs. The Associated Press reported further:

U.S. immigration agents arrested two people at a Northern California courthouse, including a man detained in a hallway on his way to a hearing, flouting a new state law requiring a judicial warrant to make immigration arrests inside such facilities.

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents made the arrests Tuesday at Sonoma County Superior Court, prompting an outcry from criminal justice and court officials who said the action undermines local authority and deters immigrants who are in the country illegally from participating in the U.S. justice system. …

California is one of several states that have passed laws to push back on a Trump administration policy introduced two years ago to make immigration arrests inside courthouses. Last year, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law to prohibit immigration arrests at courthouses without a warrant issued by a judge. …

Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch, Public Defender Kathleen Pozzi and San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin condemned the arrests for undermining public safety. Sonoma County counsel Bruce Goldstein called ICE’s actions “lawless” because the agents had no warrants.

“It’s now going to put total fear in the community,” Pozzi said in an interview with the Press Democrat. “People aren’t going to come to court. Victims will refuse to show up. Witnesses will refuse to show up … cases will have to get dismissed.”

Blah, blah, blah. Yada, yada, yada.

In fact, it is California and every other “sanctuary” city and jurisdiction in the country that are “flouting” federal law, which, under the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, supersede state and local laws. And Homeland Security officials reminded California courts and prosecutors and lawmakers of that fact in response to the ‘outcry.’

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ICE said in a statement that California’s law doesn’t supersede federal law and “will not govern the conduct of federal officers acting pursuant to duly enacted laws passed by Congress that provide the authority to make administrative arrests of removable aliens inside the United States.”

“Our officers will not have their hands tied by sanctuary rules when enforcing immigration laws to remove criminal aliens from our communities,” David Jennings, ICE’s field office director in San Francisco, added.

PJ Media notes further:

ICE’s actions follow the deployment of Customs and Border Patrol agents to sanctuary cities and states. The state government of California bitterly criticized that move, but find themselves unable to do anything to prevent it. The Department of Homeland Security, the agency under which ICE and CBP operate, can send its personnel anywhere they see fit to send them.

It’s also worth noting that when a Democrat president was in office — Obama — the Justice Department successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down most of an Arizona law requiring tougher enforcement against illegal immigration.

“The National Government has significant power to regulate immigration,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion. “Arizona may have understandable frustrations with the problems caused by illegal immigration while that process continues, but the State may not pursue policies that undermine federal law.”

So…what’s changed? Only the president and the party he represents.

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If Arizona, constitutionally, cannot impede or alter the federal government’s “significant power to regulate immigration,” in Kennedy’s words, then neither can California, wailing and ‘outcry’ notwithstanding.

And frankly, it’s about time the Trump administration stopped allowing lawless Democrat-run states and cities to dictate immigration policy and enforcement. Under the Constitution, they’ve never had the authority to do that.

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