Hideouts for illegal immigrants have surged under the Biden-Harris administration, with the nation adding 170 new sanctuary cities and counties to this list of state, county, and local police sites that refuse to turn over criminal migrants to federal officials.
In a stunning update of its sanctuary city map, the Center for Immigration Studies told Secrets that many of the new sanctuaries are in states where they have been banned, raising questions about the enforcement of state laws since President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took office.
“These localities seem to be flouting state law, and there should be consequences if they do not reverse the policy right away,” said Jessica M. Vaughan, the director of policy studies at CIS.
She has been updating the list since 2015 when CIS was granted access to an internal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement compilation of sanctuary jurisdictions through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Before the new count, there were an estimated 425 sanctuary jurisdictions, meaning that there has been a 40% surge in new sites. And it could be higher than that. One congressional report said that there were 200 sanctuary jurisdictions as of last year, meaning the surge is 85%, though top experts believe that is a vast undercount.
The states with the most jurisdictions added to the map are Virginia, North Dakota, Nebraska, New York, and Minnesota.
The expansion of sanctuary jurisdictions has come even though the administration, under the direction of Harris as border “czar,” has slowed arrests of illegal immigrants inside the United States.
Vaughan told Secrets on Wednesday that about 17% of U.S. jails are not cooperating in turning over criminal illegal migrants for deportation. In some sanctuary cities, there can be several jails that do not cooperate with ICE, but Vaughan said she would count that overall as just one for her map.
In general, jails in sanctuary jurisdictions refuse to turn illegal immigrants over to ICE after ICE makes the request through so-called “detainer” notes. ICE prefers to pick up the migrants inside jails because it is far safer and easier than tracking them down after they are released.
There have been several publicized cases of illegal immigrants sought by ICE being released and then committing more violent crimes.
“Over the years, more than 10,000 criminal aliens have been released by local authorities due to sanctuary policies, and many of these criminal aliens have subsequently been arrested for additional crimes,” said Vaughan’s new report.
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“It is alarming to see the continued proliferation of sanctuary policies, especially in places like Virginia, where ICE has had to use its scarce resources to re-arrest violent gang members and rapists in our communities who were set free by local jails, when they should have been transferred directly to ICE custody for a plane ride home,” Vaughan said.
“There is no good excuse or legal basis for these non-cooperation policies, which in many places have been adopted for political reasons. We have assisted a number of state and local officials in reversing sanctuary policies, and others should re-examine them in the wake of nearly four years of disastrous border policies that have waved in millions of unvetted migrants,” she added.
