Former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said local law enforcement should work with immigration officials to detain and deport serious criminal immigrants.
He noted the Obama-era Secure Communities program successfully encouraged over 80% of local communities to cooperate with ICE, particularly on major felonies.
“In 2014, we had a program called Secure Communities that did exactly this. It became politically and legally controversial. In 2014, I revamped the program to encourage local law enforcement to work with ICE again, particularly on those who are the most serious felonies. And we got something like 80% of local communities to start working with us again,” Johnson said.
Only two major cities refused, including Philadelphia until Johnson got the mayor to agree.
However, the new mayor later ended the agreement.
“Only like two major cities refused. One of them was the City of Philadelphia. I got Mayor Nutter (D) to work with us. His successor, on the first day in office, tore up the agreement. And I’ll never forget talking with a member of the City Council in Philadelphia, who said to me, why should we send him back? He’s already done his time here in the United States,” he said.
Johnson argued it’s reasonable for local police to assist ICE with the most serious criminals who have served their sentences, as deporting them is the point, not whether they served time in the US.
He said allowing cooperation on serious felons shouldn’t be a controversial proposition.
“That’s not the point. He’s a convicted felon. So, we ought to be able to have local law enforcement work with ICE to detain and send back certainly the most serious criminals among us. That’s not a hard proposition,” Johnson said.
