Miami-Dade County, with its decision to hold arrested immigrants being sought for deportation, is putting ideology above the public's safety, Rep. Ron DeSantis said Friday.
"You've had people for years and years who have been arrested on very, very serious offenses, sexual assault, homicide and if they get bail, that information is not provided to [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] so we can track and identify these people," the Florida Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" program.
"What we found is people who were known by these local authorities across the country to be in the country illegally have then gone on to commit more criminal offenses."
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is "exactly right" with his call to detain such individuals, DeSantis said, because if ICE has the opportunity to enforce the deportation law, such suspects would not have been around to commit future crimes.
Miami had been labeled a sanctuary city because it was not honoring detainer requests from the federal government, but it changed that policy in February and is now honoring the requests. Now, inmates are held up to 48 hours if they're wanted on a detainer request, a change that brought praise from Sessions and the Trump administration.
DeSantis said communities that refuse to follow federal law on detainer requests while acting as "sanctuary cities" should be banned from federal funding.
"This idea that you'll get money from the federal government, but then try to undercut federal law and federal law enforcement, it doesn't sit well with American taxpayers and it's not good policy," DeSantis said. "I'm sure it was a concern, but I think it's a legitimate concern, and I think that Sessions is right and the president is right to use that and say get with the program, otherwise then just deal with it on your own and we won't be providing the federal spigot."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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