Homeland Security official says L.A. sheriff's sanctuary policy will get people killed

The Department of Homeland Security's deputy secretary says that the L.A. County sheriff's new policy on illegal immigration deportation will get people killed.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva on Aug. 18 banned his department from handing over any illegal immigrant criminals to Immigration Customs Enforcement without a warrant, regardless of the crime.

Department of Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli argues that the decision will result more murders and other violent crimes that otherwise could have been prevented.

“The only convincing that I’m trying to do here is by shame, is by spelling out ‘You say you want to do A, but you do it in a way that hurts A,’" Cucinneli told the Washington Times. 

Freeing more than 2,000 criminals, including murderers, rapists, and weapons offenders, who might otherwise have been removed from the country, will clearly "lead to other murders, rapes and weapons offenses," he also said. "People in Los Angeles will die and be raped because of this sheriff's actions, and those are victims that never had to be victims."

California has a state sanctuary law limiting the types of illegal immigrants police can report to ICE, but it does not include significant criminal offenders. Villanueva's policy limits even those reports. 

In his mid-August announcement, Villanueva said that illegal immigrants in L.A. county are "afraid to report crime, out of fear of deportation and having their families torn apart." 

“I will not allow an entire segment of the population to be afraid to report crimes to law enforcement and be forced, again, back into the shadows,” said Villanueva. 

But Villanueva's justification for the policy may be flawed. ICE adopted a policy in 2011 that prohibits the start of deportation proceedings on illegal immigrants who are immediate victims of or the witness to a crime.

"As a federal law enforcement agency, ICE supports all individuals reporting crimes regardless of immigration status in the United States," Henry Lucero, the executive associate for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, told the The Washington Examiner. "It's very mind-boggling as a career law enforcement official that someone would implement this policy."

ICE officers must now obtain a judicial warrant if they wish to gain custody of an illegal immigrant. ICE officials say no such warrant exists for violations of immigration law and Villanueva's policy intentionally misunderstands the parameters of the U.S. immigration system. 

Cuccinelli also said that if ICE isn't able to gain access to the criminal in L.A.'s county jails, agents will search neighborhoods, increasing the possibility of a violent encounter and potential to arrest additional illegal immigrants in the community.