House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) sent letters to several "sanctuary governors" on Thursday, inviting them to testify before lawmakers as part of the committee's ongoing probe into the public safety impact of sanctuary policies.
Comer requested Democratic Governors Kathy Hochul of New York, Tim Walz of Minnesota, and JB Pritzker of Illinois testify before the committee during a May 15 hearing.
'President Trump is preparing to take executive action to withhold federal funding from sanctuary states.'
The letters stated, "The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is continuing to investigate sanctuary jurisdictions across the United States and their impact on public safety and the effectiveness of federal efforts to enforce the immigration laws of the United States."
"Sanctuary jurisdictions and their obstructionist policies hinder the ability of federal law enforcement officers to effectuate safe arrests and remove dangerous criminals from American communities," it continued. "This threatens Americans' safety."
Comer requested several documents from the state leaders, including all materials and communications related to sanctuary policies.
The committee previously heard testimony in March from Democratic mayors of sanctuary cities, including Eric Adams of New York, Michelle Wu of Boston, Brandon Johnson of Chicago, and Mike Johnston of Denver.
Comer stated Thursday, "Harboring aliens is a federal crime. Sanctuary policies championed by these governors jeopardize the safety of Americans and defy U.S. immigration laws."
"President Trump is preparing to take executive action to withhold federal funding from sanctuary states," he added. "Working alongside President Trump, Congress must ensure federal immigration law is enforced and that criminal aliens are swiftly removed from our communities."
Hochul indicated that she would be willing to testify, Politico reported.
She told reporters on Thursday, "We just received notification of their interest in my opinion on state laws, which I'm happy to share with them."
"I told people like Tom Homan that I will continue doing what our practice has been from the beginning, which is to cooperate with ICE when they have a warrant or they have evidence that there's a person who's committed a serious crime," Hochul said.
According to Alex Gough, a spokesperson for Pritzker, the governor is still reviewing Comer's request for documents. He has not yet determined whether he will testify.
Gough stated, "Let's call this what this is: another partisan dog and pony show."
Teddy Tschann, a spokesperson for Walz, said, "Governor Walz is happy to work with Congress, but since Minnesota is not a sanctuary state, one can't help but wonder if this is, perhaps, politically motivated."
Meanwhile, acting U.S. District Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba announced that she is launching her own investigation into Governor Phil Murphy (D) and state attorney General Matt Platkin over New Jersey’s order prohibiting local police from cooperating with federal immigration agents.
"That will no longer stand. [U.S. Attorney General] Pam Bondi has made it clear and so has our president that we are to take all criminals, violent criminals and criminals out of this country and to completely enforce federal law," Habba told Fox News' Sean Hannity on Thursday.
"And anybody who does get ... in the way of what we are doing — which is not political, it is simply against crime — will be charged in the state of New Jersey for obstruction, for concealment," Habba continued. "And I will come after hard."
Murphy's office and Platkin's office declined a request for comment from ABC News.
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A transgender illegal alien is accused of raping a 14-year-old boy in a New York City restroom. A report claimed the suspect previously was charged with violent crimes in Massachusetts but was released despite U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement placing a detainer on him.
According to the New York City Department of Correction, 30-year-old Nicol Suarez was arrested Wednesday and charged with first-degree rape. The arrest record notes that Suarez is a biological male from Colombia who has a warrant out for his arrest regarding an "immigration" issue.
'Oh my God, that is disgusting. He destroyed that little boy’s life!'
The New York Post, citing police sources, reported that Suarez stalked and then raped the boy inside the East Harlem bodega restroom Tuesday. The Post characterized Suarez as a "transgender woman."
The boy allegedly left the restroom and flagged down individuals who quickly alerted police. Suarez was being held on Rikers Island, the Post said, citing online records accessed Saturday.
Sources claimed that prosecutors initially asked for $500,000 bail and a $1.5 million bond for Suarez.
However, Judge Elizabeth Shamahs — a Democrat who was elected in 2024 — reduced the amounts to $100,000 bail or $250,000 bond, according to online court records.
Azid Haime — owner of a nearby deli — explained that children often are in the area because the Thomas Jefferson Park is nearby.
“Oh my God, that is disgusting,” Haime told the Post. "He destroyed that little boy’s life!”
He added, "All my body is shaking, I want to sit. I can’t explain how I feel. I’m more than angry.”
A law enforcement source informed the Post that Suarez was wanted in New Jersey and Massachusetts. ICE allegedly had a detainer on Suarez.
ICE defines a detainer as a "request from ICE that asks a federal, state, or local law enforcement agency — including jails, prisons or other confinement facilities — to notify the requesting agency as early as possible before they release a removable alien and to hold the alien for up to 48 hours beyond the time they would ordinarily release them so DHS has time to assume custody in accordance with federal immigration law."
Sources told the Boston Herald that Suarez was arrested for alleged violent crimes reportedly committed last June in Medford, Massachusetts.
Department of Homeland Security sources informed the outlet that Suarez was accused of armed robbery, sexual conduct for a fee, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
Suarez was released “before a detainer was lodged,” sources said.
"Trial Court employees do not have authority to detain an individual based solely on a civil immigration detainer," according to the Massachusetts government website. "Individuals subject to civil immigration detainers shall be processed and handled in the same way that all other individuals coming before the court are processed and handled."
The site states: "No court officer, nor any other court employee, shall call or otherwise initiate communication with any ICE official to report that a defendant is in court custody or in the courthouse."
The Herald said the Middlesex district attorney did not immediately respond to its request for comment.
Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York all have sanctuary "laws, ordinances, regulations, resolutions, policies, or other practices that obstruct immigration enforcement and shield criminals from ICE," according to the Center for Immigration Studies.
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City officials in Aurora, Colorado, repeatedly denied the growing threat of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua despite apparent early warnings, according to emails obtained by Aurora City Council member Danielle Jurinsky.
In a Wednesday post on X, Jurinsky shared an internal Aurora Police Department email dated November 16, 2023, from Gang Intervention Unit Officer Matthew Walters to Chief of Police Chris Poppe and several other colleagues.
'The liberal media and some politicians want you to believe that it is okay for people to live like this because it's just a handful of apartment complexes and not the entire city of Aurora.'
Walters explained that he had attached a "Gang Unit Bulletin" on TDA, which he planned to share with the entire department the following day. He noted that the announcement included information provided to him by a Homeland Security Investigations sergeant and an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, according to a photo of the email.
The ICE officer "stated TdA has decided to make Denver their headquarters due to sanctuary policies and location," Walters apparently wrote.
Poppe replied, asking Walters, "Is there any Aurora-centric info that could be included in the bulletin? Known addresses, or hangouts, or specifics cops should be aware of?"
In another X post, Jurinsky leaked a June 30 department email regarding an incident at Whispering Pines Apartments, owned by CBZ Management. According to the correspondence, a cleaning crew worker reported being "threatened ... to give up the keys to the vacant apartments … so that a group of Venezuelans could move people into" the complex.
"Suspects left but not before warning her to comply or else they would kill her and her family," the email continued, according to the photo.
The suspects reportedly stated that they had the building "under surveillance and that they had over 200 people working for them."
"I would highly recommend you guys to take 2-3 friends with you when responding to any calls there," the department email added.
In an email, Major Crime Homicide Unit Sergeant Jeff Longnecker stated, "I would be happy to go over this case with anyone that still denies this is a major problem."
Longnecker was referring to a murder, but it is not clear from the email which case precisely.
He expressed frustration that multiple agencies appeared to have opened criminal investigations into TDA, but "nobody seems to be able to work with each other."
"As soon as this group kills an innocent person all hell is going to break lose and I would hate for us all to be exposed for not sharing information with each other and/or not being able to show that we have dedicated proactive units and investigative units directly impacting this problem," Longnecker wrote.
Jurinsky torched some city leaders for downplaying the severity of the situation.
In a separate post on X, she stated, "The liberal media and some politicians want you to believe that it is okay for people to live like this because it's just a handful of apartment complexes and not the entire city of Aurora. I ask again what the threshold is for these 'leaders' to care?"
CBZ Management wrote in a post on social media this week, "The police knew about the TDA gangs taking over our properties - as early as Sept 22, 2023 - and didn't warn us! Worse, they put the onus of security on our employees without us knowing the danger!"
The company shared another leaked internal department email dated September 2023, with the subject line "Tren de Aragua."
"According to interviews from residence [sic] Tren de Aragua is working out of Aurora and residing in our city," the sergeant's email apparently read.
Ryan Luby, a city of Aurora spokesperson, told the Denver Gazette, "We must remember that police departments and the justice system as a whole must rely on admissible evidence, not hearsay, rumors and fragments of information."
"Contrary to claims made on social media and by select news organizations, the city, including APD, has remained consistent in responses on this matter," Luby wrote in a Thursday statement to the news outlet.
Luby also pushed back on CBZ Management, telling the Denver Gazette, "Instead of expending the resources to address the documented issues, CBZ and its stakeholders have hired a team of attorneys and, as we learned today, a Florida-based public relations firm to engage in diversionary tactics, fight the city in its city charter-mandated duties to enforce city code, and alternative narratives with many of you."
Governor Jared Polis' office told the news outlet that the governor's office is "committed to supporting local law enforcement and their work to keep our communities safe."
Polis previously called TDA's takeover of apartment complexes "largely a feature of Danielle Jurinsky's imagination."
"The state was first notified by Homeland Security in late July that they were monitoring activity in Aurora, the state then immediately reached out to the city of Aurora, including the Governor reaching out to the Mayor, to offer any assistance needed," the governor's office told the Denver Gazette. "When Governor Polis met with Mayor Coffman in late July, we were informed that the city did not have a strong criminal case yet and the state offered dedicated investigative support in the form of Troopers and CBI agents to work cases, and DHSEM provided analysts to support investigations to identify and arrest known criminal gang elements."
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Many Democratic-run jurisdictions across the United States have adopted various forms of so-called 'sanctuary' policies that continue to provide protections to illegal migrant criminals by creating massive roadblocks for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the agency and immigration experts.
The term "sanctuary policy" describes several similar ordinances that ultimately prevent local and state law enforcement officials from coordinating and cooperating with federal immigration officers.
Marie Ferguson, a spokesperson for ICE's New York City Field Office, told Blaze News that there is "no official or agreed-upon definition of what constitutes a 'sanctuary' jurisdiction"; however, the policies typically encompass three categories: "Don't enforce," "don't ask," and "don't tell."
Ferguson explained that "don't enforce" policies prohibit police from aiding federal immigration authorities; "don't ask" policies ban local officials from looking into an individual's immigration status; and "don't tell" policies prohibit police and federal officials from sharing information.
Ferguson stated that measures restricting cooperation between local law enforcement agencies and federal immigration officers "threaten public safety" because it "means criminal noncitizens are released back into our communities with opportunity to reoffend before being apprehended by [ICE's] Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO)."
John Fabbricatore, a retired ICE Denver Field Office Director and current Republican congressional candidate for Colorado's 6th District, told Blaze News that the regulations in sanctuary jurisdictions prevent local law enforcement agencies from communicating with ICE when they arrest or release an illegal alien.
"It makes it where ICE then has to go and find that information in other ways," he stated.
Fabbricatore explained that it is becoming more difficult for ICE to do its job because, in addition to restricting local law enforcement cooperation, some sanctuary laws also prevent other state-run agencies, such as motor vehicle and labor departments, from communicating with ICE.
"Here in Denver, they don't even allow probation and parole to give information to ICE," he told Blaze News. "So this is an illegal alien that's been convicted of a crime and then released out onto the street, and ICE is not allowed to get any information on that person. But yet, the illegal alien is going out on, say, probation, and it's being paid for by the U.S. taxpayer."
Two Colorado counties filed a lawsuit this week against the state, demanding it put an end to its sanctuary policies, claiming the measures "create dangerous conditions" for residents and citizens. Approximately 40,000 illegal migrants have moved to Denver over the past 16 months.
I support Douglas County in filing this lawsuit against the state of Colorado concerning sanctuary policy laws passed by the state legislature. These laws only protect convicted criminal Illegal aliens and do nothing to protect tax-paying citizens and legal residents.\u2026— (@)
Fabbricatore says sanctuary policies were created as part of the abolish-ICE movement to hinder federal immigration officials. These restrictions typically prevent local or state law enforcement from honoring ICE's detainer requests.
ICE's ERO, which "manages all aspects of the immigration enforcement process," according to the agency's website, places detainer requests against migrants who have been arrested and held by local or state law enforcement agencies for committing criminal acts.
"Detainers request that state or local law enforcement agencies maintain custody of the noncitizen for a period not to exceed 48 hours beyond the time the individual would otherwise be released, allowing ERO to assume custody for removal purposes in accordance with federal law," Ferguson told Blaze News.
Without coordination from local agencies, ICE officials are forced to "expend additional resources and search within neighborhoods to re-apprehend these criminals at increased risk to the public and our officers," Ferguson remarked.
The ICE spokesperson noted that detainer requests "are a critical public safety tool" to ensure that criminals do not end up back on the street.
"Since detainers result in the direct transfer of a noncitizen from state or local custody to ERO custody, they minimize the potential that an individual will reoffend," Ferguson added.
The Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, has the authority under federal law to issue administrative arrest warrants for immigration violations. ICE issues an administrative warrant of arrest with each detainer request. However, sanctuary policies often state that federal authorities must obtain a criminal warrant issued by a judge or magistrate, which ICE claims "is not required or necessary according to federal law."
"When law enforcement agencies fail to honor immigration detainers and release serious criminal offenders onto the streets, it undermines ERO's ability to protect public safety and carry out its mission," Ferguson noted.
Fabbricatore, a board member of the National Immigration Center for Enforcement, provided testimony last year at the House Immigration Subcommittee's hearing, "Examine Sanctuary Cities That Shield Illegal Aliens." He raised concerns about the "erosion of immigration enforcement and lack of respect for the rule of law" and warned about the "hundreds of thousands of criminal aliens at large" in the country under the Biden administration.
"As an ICE field office director, I witnessed the deterioration of relationships with local law enforcement agencies because of sanctuary policies," he told lawmakers.
According to Fabbricatore, detainers were helpful tools utilized by ICE to ensure public safety until sanctuary policies began prohibiting the coordination between law enforcement agencies.
"A lot of the sanctuary jurisdictions don't allow their county jails to hold ICE detainees," Fabbricatore stated, referring to sheriff's departments that rent out their unused jail space to ICE. "That limits the overall population for what ICE can hold to a very low number."
According to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse data, nearly 35,000 illegal migrants were being held in ICE detention as of April 7. Fabbricatore stated that the number of individuals in ICE custody is "very low" considering "the millions of people that are coming in and how many we could put in detention if we had that detention space."
Sanctuary policies have forced ICE to exert additional manpower and hours to locate and detain illegal migrant criminals. If local law enforcement agencies were allowed to notify ICE before a criminal migrant was released from jail, it would only require one or two federal immigration agents to pick up and transfer the individual into federal custody, Fabbricatore explained to Blaze News. It can take up to six officers to apprehend a suspect who has been released onto the street, he added. ICE officers must also run surveillance before attempting to apprehend a suspect, which typically requires at least two officers, Fabbricatore said.
"So it takes a greater amount of hours and much more manpower than if a local jurisdiction would just say, 'Hey, this person's getting ready for release. ICE, come pick them up,'" he declared.
Fabbricatore noted that federal agents catching illegal migrants on the street is not only more expensive for taxpayers but also far more dangerous for officers.
"When two officers can go to the jail, it's a secure environment," he added. "But when you go to a home, or you pull someone over in a car, they are in the community. And now you have the potential as you go to pull someone over, they flee, they crash into somebody else. Or you go to a home where they have access to firearms. Or you arrest them in front of their house in a neighborhood where maybe their neighbors are on their side, and they come out and now there's a big riot."
Experts explained that it is difficult to estimate how much longer illegal migrant criminals are out on the street as a result of the lack of communication between local and federal law enforcement agencies.
Jon Feere, director of investigations with the Center for Immigration Studies, told Blaze News, "The truth is, ICE doesn't even know when a detainer that's not honored results in the release of an alien."
Feere explained that in states like California that do not honor most detainers, ICE will not be notified that the state denied its request. In those instances, the suspect is released from custody without ICE notification.
"They'll just ignore the request altogether," Feere said.
ICE does not learn that its detainer was ignored and the suspect was released from local custody until that individual commits another crime and pops back up on the agency's radar, Feere explained.
He noted that California's policies also prohibit its sheriff's departments from participating in the 287(g) program. According to the ICE's website, this program "enhances the safety and security" of communities by authorizing the agency "to delegate to state and local law enforcement officers the authority to perform specified immigration officer functions under the agency's direction and oversight."
The program allows ICE to train sheriffs on how to identify criminal illegal migrants in their prisons and begin the paperwork process to prepare the individual for removal.
"Those are critical law enforcement partnerships. Sanctuary cities generally outlaw them," Feere remarked. "One of the things that people don't realize is that a lot of these illegal aliens who show up in jails after having been arrested have no records whatsoever. And, as a result, the sheriffs don't know who the person is and ICE doesn't know who the person is until an interview occurs."
Under ICE's Criminal Apprehension Program, officers "actually go and interview some of these individuals in the jails and they will usually admit that they're here unlawfully."
"A lot of sanctuary jurisdictions don't permit ICE to have access to their jails, which is another form of protecting criminal aliens," he said.
Regarding the types of crimes committed, Feere said it could be "almost anything you can imagine."
"It's actually quite shocking that these sanctuaries choose not to honor detainers for aliens who have been arrested for everything from DUIs to carjacking to sexual assaults. These jurisdictions have decided that allowing a foreign national to get away with violating our immigration laws is more important than public safety," he told Blaze News.
Many states, cities, and counties across the nation have adopted measures that prevent police from coordinating with federal immigration officials. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, as of April 12, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington have enacted sanctuary policies at the state level.
In Massachusetts, there are eight cities, including Boston, that have committed to shielding illegal migrants from ICE. The influx of new arrivals has caused the state's shelter system to become overwhelmed. A report published earlier this year by WBZ claimed that the state is spending roughly $64 per day to feed each migrant.
Additionally, Massachusetts is the only state in the nation with a "right to shelter" law that requires every homeless family to be provided with accommodations that include refrigeration and basic cooking facilities. Since many overflow shelters do not fulfill this requirement, the state has resorted to contracting third-party vendors to deliver food to migrants, the WBZ report found.
Paul Craney with Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance told Blaze News, "During her tenure as Massachusetts Attorney General, current Governor Maura Healey vigorously pursued the legal case which now actively prevents Massachusetts's local, county, and state law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. At the time, she hailed her win at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court as 'a victory for the rule of law and smart immigration and criminal justice policies …'"
"The victims at the heart of the recent case in the town of Milford likely disagree with her statement," Craney stated, referring to an incident in which an illegal migrant was charged with child rape after a Massachusetts District Court ignored ICE's detainer request, releasing the man back out onto the street.
"The governor and the Massachusetts legislature have the power to fix this dangerous injustice whenever they feel so moved. Federal immigration authorities are tasked with keeping track of recent immigrants and are the organization most in the know as to which, if any, new arrivals may be a threat to the children, people, and property of the people of this country," he stated.
Craney argued that the state's sanctuary policies, which Healey (D) backed, are "actively harming the people of Massachusetts" and creating "a colossal waste in taxpayer money" by forcing ICE to exhaust more time and resources to locate and apprehend criminals.
"It's time for Governor Healey and the legislature to demonstrate that they have some modicum of compassion and empathy for the people being hurt by their inaction and fix the mess they've made," Craney told Blaze News.
Ferguson, an ICE spokesperson with the New York City Field Office, told Blaze News that the agency is hopeful the city's mayor, Eric Adams (D), will reform the current sanctuary policies that prevent the agency from working with local law enforcement.
"ERO New York City will continue to uphold its mission to protect the citizens of New York by removing threats to public safety. We always stand ready to work with our law enforcement partners without condition and welcome Mayor Adams' recent comments about opening the door to cooperation," Ferguson stated.
During a February town hall meeting, Adams said, "Those small numbers [of migrants] that have committed crimes, we need to modify the sanctuary city law that if you commit a felony or violent act, we should be able to turn you over to ICE and have you deported."
Adams has claimed that the city's current laws prevent him from removing migrants that have poured into the city over the last year.
Republican state lawmakers previously proposed legislation that, if passed, would effectively reverse New York City's sanctuary policies.
Canarsie Brooklyn NY \nDuring a Town Hall meeting, a resident raised his concerns over illegal scooters, @NYPDChiefPatrol John Chell states he heard those concerns by other residents and have been taking action and so far seized over 50k illegal scooters and cars off the streets,\u2026— (@)
Fabbricatore stated that migrants are incentivized to relocate to jurisdictions with sanctuary policies.
"Sanctuary policy definitely does not protect United States citizens; it protects criminal illegal aliens," Fabbricatore added. "A lot of these sanctuary cities say that they are protecting immigrants. Legal immigrants don't need protection from ICE because they're doing the right thing. ICE is not going after them. ICE normally goes after those who commit crimes inside the United States. So illegal aliens who, on top of being illegally here, have also committed crimes."
Feere stated that passing legislation that requires sanctuary jurisdictions to honor ICE detainer requests should be the Republican Party's "top priority." He called it "unacceptable" that conservative lawmakers have not already implemented such legislation.
"The issue of sanctuary jurisdictions has gone on for quite some time, and it's amazing to me that Congress hasn't put an end to the nonsense. We have had Congresses where the Republican Party was in control and yet there was not any effort to pass a bill that requires states to honor ICE detainers," he stated. "When you have a situation with states that are choosing to ignore the federal government, our country really starts to fall apart."
"It also frustrates me that the Department of Homeland Security has allowed this to go on as long as it has. There's a saying within DHS, which is that, 'We are one DHS,'" he continued, noting that ICE, Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Transportation Security Administration, and the Coast Guard are all under DHS.
"Why is it that the other agencies within the DHS continue to do business with these states that are undermining one of its sister agencies?" Feere questioned. "Shouldn't these agencies stick up for ICE? And explain to states like California, Massachusetts that you can't pick and choose which part of DHS you want to work with? Either you work with us all, or you don't."
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Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the almost-Vice-President of the United States of America, repeatedly refused during a Thursday congressional hearing to apologize for comparing ICE agents to the Gestapo. “Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets,” Waltz said in a commencement speech at the University of Minnesota’s law school last month. “They’re […]
Illegal immigrants enjoy many privileges while unlawfully in the United States — but being counted for apportionment should not be one of them.
Colorado's Douglas County is suing the state over laws prohibiting local governments from helping enforce federal immigration laws.
The notion these migrants were tricked into traveling to Massachusetts is the height of leftist contempt for people they claim to champion.
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