U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) agents arrested two criminal aliens inside a courtroom in Northern California on Tuesday. The arrests come only days after a report that an elite tactical group of Border Patrol agents known as BORTAC was being deployed to assist ICE in making arrests in sanctuary jurisdictions
California's governor, Gavin Newsom, signed a bill into law back in November designed to protect illegal aliens from being arrested inside of state courthouses. But there appears to be one little problem with the California law: the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Despite California's wishes to regulate the country's immigration policies, ICE still claims federal authority to arrest removable criminal aliens inside the United States.
(Via The Hill)
Both arrested men are from Mexico, according to Justin Moor, a public affairs specialist at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Moor explained that the men had been arrested before. Antonio Hernandez Lopez has pending charges against him, including domestic abuse, a DUI and witness tampering. Lopez also has prior convictions for a 2005 DUI and a 2009 local ordinance conviction, according to Moor.
The other man arrested was Pedro Romero Aguirre, who, according to Moor, also has “five criminal convictions spanning more than a decade, such as trespassing, driving without a license, and a DUI.”
The Justice Department recently filed lawsuits as part of a new offensive to fight back against dangerous sanctuary policies. The new suits were filed against California, New Jersey and King County in Washington state.
Attorney General William Barr called the department's latest actions "a significant escalation in the federal government's effort to confront the resistance of sanctuary cities."
