The Independent View: Obama Administration Rebukes Sanctuary Cities

Justice Department will stop automatic transfers of prisoners to localities that don't cooperate on immigration.

The Obama administration is winning praise from conservative Republicans for initiating a change in Federal policy that could encourage so-called sanctuary cities to abandon their stance against cooperating with deportation requests.

Under the new policy, the Federal Bureau of Prisons will put prisoners finishing their sentences into immigration custody by default when immigration authorities seek deportation, even if local or state officials want the immigrant for prosecution or to finish a state or local sentence. Immigration officials may sometimes defer to state or local authorities, but will take into account a locality's cooperation with federal deportation requests in deciding whether to hand over a prisoner.

The new policy places the extra restraints on any city, county or state that chooses to adopt a so-called "sanctuary" policy, particularly a categorical one that bars all cooperation with immigration authorities.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) welcomed the change, but seemed skeptical the administration would follow through on it. "This is encouraging to hear this but I believe that old saying of trusting and verifying," Rogers said, asking for a quarterly report on how many cases were affected by the new policy. "This is a significant, very important matter for a lot of us and I'd like to know that it's working."

During her testimony before the Appropriations panel, Attorney General Lynch did not frame the new policy as an effort to punish so-called sanctuary cities but to make sure federal authorities who turn over an immigrant to local authorities are notified when those proceedings are complete, so a deportation could be arranged. "Particularly where we're dealing with a jurisdiction that is not prone to honoring, Immigration & Customs Enforcement, detainers ... our policy is going to be that ICE will instead have the first detainer and that individual will go into ICE custody and deportation," the Attorney General said. "This may have the effect that there may be local cases that may not be able to be prosecuted because, again, the person will be taken into ICE custody and then deported."

Lynch said the Justice Department wouldn't rule out turning over a deportable prisoner to local authorities for prosecution, but "would have to have assurances that ICE would also then be able to get the individual back at the end of an adjudication so that the deportation process could go underway."

Criticism of sanctuary policies has intensified in recent months, especially following the shooting death in San Francisco last July of Kathryn Steinle, 32. The Mexican national accused of shooting Steinle, Francisco Sanchez, was released from the Sheriff's custody in San Francisco 10 weeks before the shooting because of the city's policy against enforcing immigration-related detention requests. Steinle "was shot and murdered by a seven-time convicted felon and five-time deportee who was released onto the streets of San Francisco due to their utterly unacceptable and illegal sanctuary policy," Culberson said Wednesday.

The Bureau of Prisons policy change involving sanctuary cities had not been widely publicized before Wednesday's hearing and was apparently first disclosed in a letter the Justice Department sent to Culberson Tuesday.

A Justice Department spokeswoman had no immediate response to questions about how the new policy was developed and when it took effect. The policy does not appear to extend beyond the Bureau of Prisons, so it would not apply to prisoners in pretrial federal custody who are acquitted, have federal charges dismissed or are released on bail.

While some chalked up the change as a victory for those favoring a tougher stance against illegal immigration, several experts said the impact could be largely symbolic.

It was noted that the vast majority of prisoners are in state or local custody, not federal custody. In addition, many federal prisoners serve long terms, with the average around six years, so state and local cases would be somewhat stale by the time an inmate emerges from the federal system. So state or local requests for federal prisoners being discharged would be unusual.

Some immigrant rights advocates said sanctuary city critics were exaggerating the import of the new policy. "The idea that somehow this leads to punishment of sanctuary cities seems to me to be reading into the letter what's not on the page," said Chris Newman of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. But he added, "The Obama Administration has been opposed to sanctuary cities from the beginning."