(Bethany Blankley, The Center Square) In six months, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued 6,025 detainer requests with local jails and corrections facilities in New York City in order to pick up “criminal aliens” currently detained after having been arrested for crimes.
Because of the city’s so-called sanctuary city policies, local law enforcement officers have been prohibited from cooperating with ICE, including assisting with criminal arrest warrants for violent offenders like rapists, murderers and drug traffickers.
“Every New Yorker should know: their sanctuary politicians are working against law enforcement and RELEASING criminal illegal aliens with prior convictions for rape, murder, and drug trafficking back into their communities,” DHS said in a statement.
Since Jan. 20, ICE has issued 6,025 arrest requests to transfer custody, or detainers, in New York City. Under the full four years of the Biden administration, 9,472 detainers were requested in NYC, DHS said. Of the 6,025 detainer requests issued under the current Trump administration, local authorities have honored only a handful, DHS said.
Under federal law, local authorities that comply with ICE detainer requests hold the “criminal alien” for roughly 48 hours to allow ICE officers to take them into custody. The requests are often for those with prior deportation orders, criminal convictions, or those who have been identified as posing a national security threat.
Instead of turning over violent criminals to ICE who were already detained in their jails, sanctuary jurisdictions released them into their local communities. By doing so, local authorities created a more dangerous environment for the public and for ICE officers who then had to go out and find them to rearrest them, The Center Square has reported.
As ICE officers continue to search and find violent offenders in communities across the U.S., members of the public and those they’re arresting are increasingly assaulting them. Assaults on ICE officers have increased by 830% in six months since President Donald Trump took office, The Center Square reported.
The latest acts of violence include shootings at ICE and Border Patrol facilities in Texas, and the more recent shooting of an ICE officer in New York City.
The ICE officer in New York City would never have been shot or targeted had the Dominican nationals who were in the country illegally been deported instead of released into the country under the Biden administration, DHS argues. They also would not have been able to shoot him if they hadn’t been released into local communities in Massachusetts and New York after they were arrested for allegedly committing multiple felonies, DHS and others argue.
Their criminal histories since 2023 include arrests for second degree reckless endangerment, fourth degree felony grand larceny and petit larceny; and felony grand larceny, second and third degree assault, armed robbery (firearm), armed kidnapping (firearm), assault with a dangerous weapon (firearm), among other felonies, The Center Square reported.
Prior to issuing more than 6,000 detainer requests in New York City this year, there were already nearly 663,000 noncitizens with criminal histories on ICE’s national docket, including those detained by ICE, and on its non-detained docket. Among them, nearly 436,000 were convicted criminals, and nearly 227,000 had pending criminal charges, with many living freely in the U.S., The Center Square reported.
Because local jurisdictions refused to cooperate with ICE, 24,796 known criminals were released into the U.S. over a four-year period analyzed from 2020-2024, ICE reported last year.
