RALEIGH – He’s only been sworn in for a couple weeks, but Wake County’s new Sheriff, Gerald Baker, has already followed through on campaign promises to release illegal aliens back into the community instead of cooperating with ICE to have them deported.
“Just two weeks after Baker was sworn in, 16 people under ICE detainers have been released after either serving their standard time or posting bond.
An additional 79 people remain in custody on state charges, but the sheriff said he will not honor those ICE detainers either.
“Since that is a voluntary program, we withdrew from that. The detainers themselves, as we looked at those, are, again, requests. They are not court ordered. If they were court ordered, we’d have to abide by it,” [Legal Adviser Rick] Brown said.”
Baker’s stated purpose in ending the programmatic cooperation with ICE was to encourage people in illegal immigrant communities to call law enforcement without fear of being deported.
“Baker said he simply wants his focus to be elsewhere when it comes to communities most impacted by Wake County’s former participation in the program.
“I’m more concerned about having them feel comfortable enough to contact this office when they need our help. That’s more important to me,” he said.”
Put another way, Baker is more concerned with illegal aliens’ sense of comfort than actual law enforcement or, more importantly, legal residents’ safety.
He wanted to lift the sense of fear he said these communities live in, by reducing the presence of immigration authorities. His progressive approach, though, is backfiring judging by ICE’s response to the new policy.
“ICE has gone on record responding to Baker’s stance, saying his decision will not decrease its presence in Wake County.
“In fact, residents should expect a more visible ICE presence in the Raleigh-Durham area, as ICE will now have no choice but to conduct more at-large arrests in local neighborhoods and at work sites,” ICE said in a statement.”
So instead of merely communicating with ICE about criminals that are already in county’s custody, Baker is forcing those immigration authorities to perform more sweeping enforcement measures than before.
These are not people merely picked up for being ‘undocumented’; they have committed crimes worthy of arrest, in some cases sentenced to time in jail, and Baker is releasing them back into the community to disappear into the shadows all over again.
So, two weeks, and 16 illegal aliens knowingly released back into the community, with roughly 80 more that will get the same treatment. How many weeks before one of these released criminals commits an awful, and entirely preventable, crime?
Read more here.
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