Protesters of ICE may have just shot themselves in the foot with their over zealous protests against the immigration control organization. Due in large part to their showing up by the hundreds to demand the removal of ICE, Contra Costa County, across the bay from San Francisco, CA, decided to sever its contract with ICE wherein they agreed to house immigrant detainees in its West County Detention Facility.
The Richmond-based facility averaged 200 immigrant detainees on a daily basis, but Sheriff David Livingston suggested the cost of policing anti-ICE protests was a large contributor to the decision to end the contract.
Livingston said local authority had become “overshadowed by the attention the ICE contract brings,” and “managing protests in Richmond have become expensive and time-consuming for our staff.”
The 2010 contract allowed for ICE to house illegal immigrants while they waited for deportation and provided a $3 million a year revenue for the county. Some of those funds are used to pay for sheriff personnel, which will cause a drain on the county’s budget and tax payers. However, as ICE spokesperson Richard Rocha said, the contract termination hurts immigrants and their families as well:
“The decision to no longer house ICE detainees at the West County Detention Facility will negatively impact local ICE operations; however, the impact will be greater for those who would have been detained at the facility,” Rocha said.
“Now, instead of being housed close to family members or local attorneys, ICE may have to depend on its national system of detention bed space to place those detainees in locations farther away, reducing the opportunities for in-person family visitation and attorney coordination.”
Karen Mitchoff, chair of the county Board of Supervisors, was not pleased with the decision. After saying that the president’s policy was abhorrent, she added: “But we have to deal with the cases before us. We are facing a budget deficit. … It is the Contra Costa County taxpayer who will have to fill that hole.” Which, she said, will cause hardship for the families. “Unfortunately, with the closure of this facility, individuals that ICE is not able to release through normal processes will be sent to other facilities and will no longer have easy access to family members during a trying time.”
Did anyone stop to think of the consequences? Apparently not, as is usual with the left’s outrageous demands. Act first, think later should be their mantra. Ali Saidi, of the Contra Costa Immigrant Rights Alliance, had a brilliant (note the heavy sarcasm here) solution to the problem:
“ICE has the discretion to release every person in the immigration wing of West County Detention Facility. ICE’s statement is disingenuous in that it gives the impression that they have no choice but to separate families and limit access to legal services, when all they have to do is not keep people imprisoned for civil immigration proceedings.”
Sure, that’s the right answer, just release them all. While we’re at it, let’s release everyone in jail for misdemeanors, right? Where is the logic in that? Illegal immigrants know they are breaking the law by entering the U.S. illegally, just as thieves know it is a crime to steal. They are also aware there are consequences should they be caught. The idiocy of the left boggles the mind. In the justice system, there are checks and balances. The law is the law. If you commit a crime, you do the time; regardless of skin color, nationality, gender or religious beliefs.
Although the left may feel they have won a battle by getting the county to end its contract with ICE, they will soon be taking up the tear-jerking gauntlet because now these immigrants are being housed further away from their families. This erroneous exaggeration will likely add more fuel to the fire for the separation of families complaint. It won’t matter that they are the reason for moving immigrants to facilities farther away. No, it will be just another atrocity caused by our president.
