On Thursday’s broadcast of NPR’s “All Things Considered,” NPR National Desk Correspondent Joel Rose discussed sanctuary policies and said that ICE officers “much prefer to arrest immigrants who are already being held in local jails. That is easier and faster and often safer than arresting people out on the street.”
Rose said [relevant remarks begin around 3:05] that the Trump administration’s focus on combatting sanctuary laws “may be because these laws are a major obstacle to President Trump’s pledge to carry out mass deportations. ICE simply has limited capacity to make arrests and detain people, and officers much prefer to arrest immigrants who are already being held in local jails. That is easier and faster and often safer than arresting people out on the street.”
He continued, “And, in fact, this is how ICE was able to make so many arrests during the Obama administration, for example, before sanctuary laws were as widespread as they are now. These laws force ICE to spend more time and energy making its own arrests, which is especially inconvenient for the agency now that the White House is pushing to get those arrest numbers up in order to follow through on the president’s campaign promises.”
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