Targeting the sanctuary cities.
Via WBTV:
The “new normal” is to expect more visible ICE presence in the community, ICE Atlanta Field Office Director Sean Gallagher said Friday, following 200 arrests across North Carolina.
Criminal offenders are being released back into the community, Gallagher says. The recent arrests include at least a dozen in Charlotte.
Sixty people arrested were “not a target” by ICE, but were at the “wrong place at the wrong time” and when identified by ICE agents, they were arrested.
Gallagher says 287(g) changes led to release of a person who they say, after being freed, committed an armed robbery in Mecklenburg County.
Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden’s office sent out a statement in response to the comments made by Gallagher that mentions the Sheriff deep commitment to keeping the community safe.
“If ICE is interested in addressing violent crimes committed by all citizens and not just those committed by immigrants, Sheriff McFadden would embrace the opportunity to work with ICE,” the statement reads.
McFadden spoke to WBTV in a phone interview Friday night and continued to voice his opposition to the 287(g) program.
“I think it’s a poorly designed program. If we look at it, it has poor designs in it. It doesn’t bring unity in our community. It doesn’t build trust,” said the sheriff.
He said he thinks ICE is trying to scare community members with it’s recent presence in the community.
“It is creating intentional fear, deliberate to create panic in the community,” said McFadden.[…]
“I think the sheriff’s office would be shocked at the individuals we’re releasing back into the community,” ICE said, explaining that 91-percent of those arrested were either criminally convicted or charged with a crime.
“Rape, sex offenses, they released a murderer,” Gallagher said of those arrested. “We will continue to be out there protecting the citizens of these counties.”