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A county sheriff in Northern California announced Tuesday that his office would no longer respond to any requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) about the release or transfer of illegal immigrants in order to "protect the safety" of residents in his county.

San Mateo County Sheriff Carlos Bolanos said that his offices policy was now consistent with other counties in the Bay Area.

ICE ARRESTS DROPPED SHARPLY IN FY 2021 AS BIDEN ADMINISTRATION RESTRICTED ENFORCEMENT

"It has become apparent to me that complying with those requests regarding the pending release of undocumented individuals who have committed serious crimes is undermining the trust we need to protect the community," Bolanos said in a written statement. "It simply is not worth losing the trust of many members of the public by continuing to process these requests from ICE."

Bolanos said the change comes after meeting with hundreds of residents who gave their input earlier this month at a Transparent Review of Unjust Transfers and Holds (TRUTH) Act forum, a meeting that is required when law enforcement cooperates with ICE.

San Mateo County Sheriff Carlos Bolanos said that his offices policy to no longer comply with ICE's requests about the release of transfer of illegal immigrants was now consistent with other counties in the Bay Area. (Reuters, File)

"This change is being made after we heard from hundreds of residents who shared their perspective on how we will all be safer when the entire community understands the Sheriffs Office is here to protect the public, not enforce immigration laws," Bolanos said.

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County officials said the sheriffs office coordinated 15 transfers to ICE from the county jail last year, noting that most individuals convicted of serious felonies serve their sentences in state prison rather than county jail.

ICE could still obtain a judicial warrant if the agency believes an individual poses a serious threat, which law enforcement in the Bay Area must honor, county officials said.

Bolanos said he "will continually evaluate any effects caused by this change in policy and, if necessary, consider adjustments."

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California sheriff ends cooperation with ICE on transfers of immigrants who committed crimes - Fox News

Former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder said Democrats will pay a price at the ballot box next year if they start cutting taxpayer-funded checks to migrants.

Mr. Wilder, the nations first Black governor, said the Biden administrations plan for payoffs, if successful, will dent the partys image in the eyes of voters who feel left behind despite playing by the rules.

When you are saying to the American people you are going to spend countless billions of dollars for people illegally here and those who have been here struggling to climb up the ladder for years have not been given a chance then that is going to be a problem, Mr. Wilder said in an interview Thursday with The Washington Times.

The Wall Street Journal broke the news late last month that the Biden administration is considering giving payments to immigrants who were crossing the border illegally and say they suffered emotional trauma from family separations under President Trumps zero-tolerance border policy.

The report said some families could receive upward of $450,000 for each individual directly affected by the policy, which led to thousands of family separations. The total bill could run as high as $1 billion, the report said.

Critics have since noted that the families of fallen service members receive a $100,000 death gratuity.

The payments for immigrants would come as part of a settlement to resolve lawsuits the ACLU and other advocacy groups have filed on behalf of families and parents over the way they were treated during the Trump administration.

President Biden last week scoffed at the reported size of the payments but clarified over the weekend that he supports compensating migrant families who were separated on Mr. Trumps watch.

Now heres the thing. If in fact because of the outrageous behavior of the last administration, you come across the border, whether it was legal or illegal, and you lost your child, Mr. Biden said. You lost your child. Its gone. You deserve some kind of compensation, no matter what the circumstance. What that will be, I have no idea.

Mr. Wilder said Mr. Bidens attempts to humanize the payments to the immigrants fell flat. He said the responsibility of the government is to help people who are already here and who have been forgotten.

What about people who have been here the entirety of their lives and never gotten anything? said Mr. Wilder. Balancing inequities is one thing, ignoring needs is another.

Republicans are trying to block payments, warning that if the administration follows through on the idea it will lead to a surge in migrants.

GOP Senators plan to add an amendment to the upcoming defense policy bill that would block the payments. House Republicans also have introduced a bill called the Illegal Immigration Payoff Prohibition Act, that seeks to thwart the payoff push.

The surge of young immigrants at the southern border has raised questions about the Biden administrations approach.

A Quinnipiac University Poll released last month found that Americans say the economy, 19%; COVID-19, 16%; and immigration, 14%, are the most urgent issues facing the country.

The top issue for Republicans was immigration, 28%; followed by the economy, 24%; and the national debt, 10%.

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Douglas Wilder warns Dems of voter backlash from $450K payouts to illegal immigrants - Washington Times

MERSING: The Armed Forces arrested 45 illegal Indonesian immigrants on Monday (Nov 15) during Ops Benteng within the areas under the jurisdiction of the Seventh Infantry Brigade.

This comes after the officers-in-charge of the Observer Post had detected suspicious sounds coming from a boat in the waters off northern Tenggaroh here.

The Quick Reaction Force (QRF) Team was deployed to the scene and the illegal immigrants were detained at around 1.30am, it said in a statement.

It said that of the 39, 26 of them had just arrived while the other 13 were waiting to leave the country on a waiting boat.

Another six illegal immigrants were caught at 8.45am while hiding in an oil palm plantation in Tenggaroh Timur, not far from the spot where the 26 had landed earlier.

The suspects nine females and 36 males between the ages of 19 and 45 - were brought to the Tanjung Sepang tactical headquarters for Covid-19 tests.

Two of them tested positive and have been handed over to the Health Ministry for further action,'' it said.

The team also seized RM10,000, eight mobile phones and jewellery.

A police report was lodged at Bayu Damai police station in Pengerang, Kota Tinggi and the suspects would be handed over to the Immigration Department in Setia.

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Armed Forces arrest 45 illegal immigrants off Mersing - The Star Online

This month, Sister Teresa Ann Wolf, who served as the director of the Multicultural Center for several years, is at the Mexico border helping to provide temporary shelter and feed refugees and immigrants.

Wolf presented information about the current border issues at the Watertown Public Library on Nov. 1 before leaving on her latest trip.

Anyone whose life is in danger and is at risk can approach an international border and apply for asylum. Its an international human right, Wolf said.

Wolf explained that although this is an international human right, the United States and several other countries fail to uphold this law and many recent immigration restrictions and policies have only caused further harm to already traumatized people.

The political tension that centers around immigration, whether illegal, legal or asylum-seeking, comes with a heavy price. Thatprice is the failure in identifying, solving and reforming issues regarding immigration among congress. But there is also a heavy toll paid by all immigrants, regardless of their visa status. Wolf said communities also suffer from the polarization of immigration in a variety of ways.

We cannot talk about this like reasonable people looking for solutions, said Wolf. We are experiencing increasing levels of anti-immigrant rhetoric. You hear and see it all the time, the stereotypes and myths about immigrants that fuel xenophobia and cause increased racial tensions and unrests.

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Wolf has been the Mexico-United States border on several occasions throughout the years, helping those who have successfully crossed into the United States by providing temporary housing, food and clothing.

We received immigrants every evening for supper. They stayed overnight, and we gave them breakfast in the morning. Then they were off to San Antonio before catching a flight to wherever their sponsors were located, she said.

Immigration has a long history and has faced several challenges over the past several decades. Wolf said many presidents throughout the years have tried, and failed, to make the process safer, faster and fairer.

President Bush made huge progress in immigration reform, said Wolf. And then the bombing of 9/11 happened, and that canceled all his plans. It spiked fear and suspicion of foreigners, and his plans came to nothing. Jump ahead to Obama, who could not make any immigration reform happen because of an uncooperative Congress.

Wolf stressed that immigration reform is the responsibility of congress, and it is their inability to work together that causes failed policies and furtherharms the immigration process. But, although it is congress'prerogative, she said, the president does promote initiatives.

One such initiative was the Migrant Protection Protocol, also known as the Remain in Mexico policy, which made it even more of a challenge for asylum seekers fleeing for their lives.

The Trump administration enacted the Migrant Protection Protocol to keep asylum seekers in Mexico until their immigration court date. Before this protocol, asylum seekers were processed through the border into the United States and awaited their court date in safety.

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But the protocol itself violatesinternational law as it sent asylum seekers fleeing life-threatening situations back into the line of fire.

While in Mexico, these people are very vulnerable to all kinds of crimes theft, murder, rapes, human trafficking. It was a terrible policy, said Wolf.

These asylum seekers often come with no resources no food, no money and only the clothes on their backs. When they're not allowed into the country to wait for their court date, they must also find legal representation, which is a near-impossible task.

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security website over 60% of those crossing the border seeking asylum are family units and unaccompanied children, and 60% are not from Mexico. It is these populations that were waiting in Mexico for their immigration court dates.

As the policy broke international law and put vulnerable families and unaccompanied children at risk, President Biden has ended the Migrant Protection Protocol.

On Oct. 29, 2021, Alejandro N. Mayorkas, secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a memo that reads:

This Administration is tackling longstanding problems that have plagued our immigration system for decades to achieve needed systemic change. The Migrant Protection Protocol does not help meet this goal.Migrant Protection Protocol had endemic flaws, imposed unjustifiable human costs, pulled resources and personnel away from other priority efforts, and did not address the root causes of irregular migration. . . It fails to provide the fair process and humanitarian protections that individuals deserve under the law.

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The Migrant Protection Protocol and subsequently the Title 42 expulsions, which kept refugees and asylum seekers from crossing the border due to COVID-19 fears, have also put the processing of immigrants at a severe backlog, said Wolf.

Not only is the backlog affecting those trying to cross the southern border and the organizations that try to assist these people, but even legal immigrants looking to renew their visa statuses within the United States are feeling these effects.

According to Evans Law in Sioux Falls, the backlog means that the processing of a green card will take at least nine months. Without a green card or other proper visa status, immigrants who reside in the United States and are educated, young, and healthy cannot work.

Maintaining legal status is part of the problem when dealing with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an immigration status that Wolf and her colleges are quite familiar with when helping immigrants in Watertown.

Only DACA renewals are being permitted, said Wolf. DACA is for children who come to this country with their parents when they are very young. They grow up here, they speak perfect English, they go to school here, but yet they cannot continue to go to college or to find a job because they lack the legal documents needed to do so.

Wolf explained that new DACA applicants are not being accepted and that only those with current DACA standings can renew their status to work and attend post-secondary education.

Through DACA, they cannot apply for citizenship, but it does legalize their status so that they can go to college, graduate with a diploma and legally get jobs, she said.This adds to the life of the people of Watertown. We have helped people with their DACA applications so that they may attend Lake Area Tech. We have helped people so that they can work here and who become essential workers. Now that people who are entering adulthood cannot apply, we have many young, healthy people who want to enter the workforce and are not legally able to do so, and its through no fault of their own. We missed out on a whole generation of people who can contribute to our economy.

More: News Watch Investigation: Federal government relied largely on local lenders to vet more than $800 billion in COVID-19 loans

To make positive changes, Wolf encourages people to stop the spread of misinformation about immigration and be mindful that immigrants are our neighbors, co-workers and friends. That asylum seekers are not illegal aliens.

Contact your senators and representatives about creating fair and just immigration reform, Wolf said. To find a way to form a coalition of both Democrats and Republicans that will work together and tackle immigration reform, instead of just pointing fingers. To welcome immigrants instead of condemning them into the United States and to South Dakota.

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Watertown resident travels to southern border, explains how immigration affects all - Watertown Public Opinion

To the Editor:

Re Menace Grows Commonplace Among G.O.P. (front page, Nov. 13):

It is appalling what our country has become. There have always been dissension and clashes between the two political parties, but there has rarely been anything as utterly ugly as what is going on today.

That a young man at a rally can ask when can we start killing Democrats and get a round of applause is a travesty. Threats of violence have become the norm in the Republican Party, fueled by the unscrupulous twice-impeached promoter of the Big Lie.

Representative Paul Gosar should be ousted for the video in which he portrays slaying Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene should be ousted as well for promoting vile conspiracy theories and listing as traitors the 13 Republicans who voted to pass the infrastructure bill.

Because of her they are getting death threats. Their biggest crime was daring to vote for a bill that would benefit all Americans, instead of toeing the party line. The Republicans who stand by and do nothing and say nothing are equally guilty in their silence.

There is a war on our democracy. Violence is taking over our government. Our elected officials should do the job they were elected to do, uphold the Constitution and govern for the good of the people.

Milena CornickNew York

To the Editor:

So Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona tweeted an anime video altered to show him killing Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and swinging two swords at President Biden. When questioned, Mr. Gosars office offered this response: It is a symbolic cartoon. It is not real life. Well, duh!

While we all understand that this is not real life, we also understand that this type of political violence porn contributes to the actions of unhinged people that we saw in the Jan. 6 assault on Congress. Revving up the nutballs who are just waiting to create more havoc in our public life should not be the task of elected officials, if they are acting like adults. Paul Gosar should be ashamed of himself.

Judith Koll HealeyMinneapolis

To the Editor:

Your report gives grudging acknowledgment that elements of the left have contributed to the confrontational tenor of the countrys current politics, but then proceeds to document only statements by Republicans.

I am thinking of a statement by a Democratic representative, Maxine Waters, during the trial of Derek Chauvin over George Floyds death: Weve got to get more confrontational. Weve got to make sure that they know that we mean business. This pales in comparison with recent comments by a Black Lives Matter leader, Hawk Newsome, about possible changes in policing: There will be riots, there will be fire and there will be bloodshed.

It isnt only talk. The looting and fires in New York City in June 2020 were not by Republicans. And lets not forget Kenosha, Portland and Minneapolis.

Alexander GoldsteinBrooklyn

To the Editor:

The biggest threat to our democracy is not an outside threat, but politicians and their followers who are willing to threaten their opponents over the results of free and fair elections.

If Republican leaders felt that this violence was unwarranted and harmful to their political brand, they would immediately denounce these assaults against democracy. Why are so many so complacent about attacks that would be considered existential if they came from foreign actors?

Edwin AndrewsMalden, Mass.

To the Editor:

Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin are facing criticism from Democrats for not toeing the party line. As a bisexual Democrat, I find it horrifying to watch the criticism of Ms. Sinema devolve into sly biphobic attacks that are increasing in frequency and ferocity.

Recent articles about Senator Sinema, including in The New York Times, focus on her person, not her politics. Democrats are attacking her because she is not voting the way they want her to vote, and the attacks are using her bisexuality as a weapon against her.

One article, for example, refers to Ms. Sinemas style choices viewed as a type of pinkwashing: leveraging positive associations with gay culture and identity to distract from ones negative actions.

Meanwhile, without federal anti-discrimination legislation, bisexuals face discrimination across the United States. One of the places making strides to eliminate L.G.B.T. discrimination is Arizona, Ms. Sinemas state.

Whether or not one agrees with all of Ms. Sinemas policy positions, and I often dont, as an American who cherishes democracy I believe that it is her right (and, as an elected official, her duty) to determine her own political positions, free from attacks on her identity.

(Rev.) Marian Edmonds-AllenNew YorkThe writer is the executive director of Parity, a nonprofit that works on faith and L.G.B.T. issues.

To the Editor:

Re How Maps Reshape American Politics (charts, Nov. 12):

Take all redistricting out of the hands of people who serve to gain unfairly from it.

Create an algorithm that divides each state into as many rectangular districts as the state is allowed, and have each districts boundaries moved enough to create relatively equal population numbers that ignore any voter characteristics such as political party, race, etc.

Ted KallmanOcracoke, N.C.

To the Editor:

Re Immigration Laws Racist Legacy, by Reece Jones (Opinion guest essay, Nov. 1):

Our nations guilty conscience for laws and actions of the past should not be the basis of badly needed immigration reform. After all, the stain of the past was often directed at specific races.

Our lawmakers must decide how many people can immigrate to our country each year. Open borders are disruptive, expensive and harmful to Americans who need assistance. Money used for undocumented immigrants is money that could be used to subsidize poor Americans, including the aid being proposed in Congress today.

Many Americans who are not xenophobic want the crisis on our southern border to end, not because they hate one group of people or another, but because millions of people are entering the country illegally.

The essay suggests that the United States accept the unprecedented illegal immigration on our southern border because of actions that took place long before most of us were born.

Salvatore J. BommaritoNew York

To the Editor:

A Faltering Shadow War Against Somali Militants (front page, Oct. 25) left me apprehensive that the United States is heading for another Afghanistan-like disaster in Somalia.

The article describes a corrupt, ineffective and highly unpopular central government, propped up by an African peacekeeping force and American-trained soldiers, fighting against Al Shabab, a strong local guerrilla group that has built up a parallel state that collects taxes and has a functioning judicial system.

But what about the more popular regional governments resisting central control from Mogadishu and, at least in most of the country north of the capital, free from Al Shabab as well as reasonably uncorrupt? In the Somaliland Republic, which broke away from the south as a self-declared country, there have been democratic elections and peaceful transitions between administrations, and it, too, has contained Al Shabab.

If so many Somalis reject the central government, why should the United States support it? Continuing to back what your article calls the fractious political elite in Mogadishu is a prescription for a mini-Afghanistan on the Horn of Africa.

Martin R. GanzglassWashingtonThe writer served in the Peace Corps in Somalia as legal adviser to the Somali National Police Force and adviser to the U.S. ambassador to Somalia during Operation Restore Hope.

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Opinion | Threats of Violence in Todays Political Discourse - The New York Times