On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Katy Tur Reports,” NBC News Homeland Security Correspondent Julia Ainsley stated that “if you listened to the RNC this week, you might think the Biden administration isn’t doing anything about migrant crime” but ICE arrests have increased, because of sanctuary cities and counties backing off their sanctuary policies due to the public safety issues those policies caused.
Ainsley said, “Well, if you listened to the RNC this week, you might think the Biden administration isn’t doing anything about migrant crime. But, in fact, over the past year, ICE has increased its arrests of migrants with criminal backgrounds by 59%. And they say that’s, in large part, because a lot of cities that once were strictly sanctuary and would never tell ICE when they were releasing an immigrant with a criminal background are now coming to the table to cooperate.”
She then played a report on ICE arrests, which contained video of Montgomery County, MD Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Earl Stoddard saying that they increased cooperation with ICE because “obviously, we don’t want a situation where we release someone and they go on to commit an even more serious or heinous crime. And so, that’s the thing that we’re always concerned about.”
The report also contained video of ICE Director Patrick Lechleitner stating the reconsideration of sanctuary policies is because “We’ve seen some examples of this where some individuals, unfortunately, were encountered by local law enforcement because of the policies put in place, and, all of a sudden, you have people being released and reoffending. And we don’t want that.”
Ainsley also stated that there are “record-high border crossings under the Biden administration” and this has led to a surge in ICE caseloads.
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