On Wednesday, Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer, a constitutional attorney by training who also frequently opines on issues pertaining to immigration enforcement and border security, joined “Tipping Point with Liz Wheeler” on One America News Network to discuss the latest immigration- and crime-related craziness to emerge from the sanctuary jurisdiction that is the state of California.
“Since California became a sanctuary state in 2017, the number of inmates with immigration detainers being arrested again after being released from jail has jumped, according to a new report from Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes,” Los Angeles’ local CBS affiliate reported earlier this week. “According to Barnes, more than 1,500 inmates released in 2019 had ICE detainers, a request from the federal agency for notification that a particular inmate has been released. Of those inmates, 238 were re-arrested in Orange County for new crimes, including assault and battery, rape, and robbery.”
“The rate of recidivism for those with ICE detainers is up from 2018, when 123 were arrested again for new crimes, out of more than 1,800 such inmates, according to the report,” the outlet continued.
Hammer has been previously outspoken on the topic of sanctuary cities, opining in a Daily Wire op-ed last summer that the majority of sanctuary jurisdictions blatantly violate the text of 8 U.S.C. § 1373(a), which reads: “Notwithstanding any other provision of Federal, State, or local law, a Federal, State, or local government entity or official may not prohibit, or in any way restrict, any government entity or official from sending to, or receiving from, the [Department of Homeland Security] information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual.”
“The Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, as applied to § 1373(a), therefore prohibits state and local governments from shielding a removable illegal alien from ICE when ICE issues a detainer request on the alien,” Hammer wrote.
Joining Wheeler, Hammer decried the disproportionately high rate of crime for illegal aliens in America before making a similar legal point that he made in the Daily Wire op-ed. He accused sanctuary jurisdictions of adopting similar logic to that of the old Confederacy:
Very few people in the conservative punditry class are making this point, but my reading of federal law is that laws like California’s are blatantly illegal. If you look at title eight of the United States Code, section 1373, subsection (a), it says very clearly that no federal, state, or local government can “prohibit” or “restrict” sending any information to the Department of Homeland Security, which of course includes [Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)]. Put another way, when ICE requests detainer information, these states cannot just refuse it. That is literally against the United States Code. And of course, that law is promulgated directly pursuant to the Supremacy Clause of Article VI of the Constitution.
Liz your high school viewers might recall from civics class in high school: This was the entire so-called “nullification crisis” of the 1830s, with John C. Calhoun in South Carolina. And it’s the reason why, in my personal writings on this topic going back months, I always refer to the sanctuary jurisdictions as “neo-Confederate,” because it’s literally what’s going on here. They are adopting John C. Calhoun-esque, defying-federal law, Confederacy-style public policy and legal argumentation.
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