Former Obama ICE Director Admits Sanctuary Policies 'Went Way Too Far'

John Sandweg, who previously served as acting ICE Director under President Barrack Obama, openly admitted that “some of these sanctuary policies went way too far” and have undermined public safety.

During an appearance on NewsNation’s “Dan Abrams Live,” Sandweg said a city like Denver probably can’t do “as much as the mayor thinks.”

“We saw a lot of this four years ago during the first Trump administration, and a lot of the mayors of the more progressive cities will come out and make bold statements about how they’re going to restrict immigration enforcement in their cities,” Sandweg said.

“They cannot stop federal agents from enforcing federal law in the city. So, that means if ICE wants to do a[n] area sweep where they go door-to-door in neighborhoods, generally speaking, because of the Supremacy Clause, the mayor can’t stop them.”

“But where the mayors can be very impactful is in access to the jails. 90-95% of ICE’s interior arrests, currently, all come from prisons and jails, including state prisons and jails. They can also — and they rely on access to those jails to get the immigrants there, where they’re already…literally captured sitting right there.”

“But they also rely on information. ICE relies heavily on information from the criminal justice system.”

“Mayors can restrict that. So, they can do some serious damage to ICE’s ability to execute this mass deportation plan, but probably not as much as some of the political rhetoric suggests.”

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He added:

“I think there are some limitations that are fair enough…if you’re booked for driving without a license and we booked you because we just — you didn’t have a valid ID and we’re trying to find out who you were and the mayor says, I can’t have you, ICE, taking them because it creates a chilling effect, now victims are going to be scared to call when their immigrant spouse beats them up, those are legitimate concerns.”

“But I agree with you. Listen, some of these sanctuary policies went way too far, where you had convicted murderers being — where the locality would say, he’s a convicted murderer, but we’re not going to give you to ICE, even though he’s a foreign national. Obviously, those undermine public safety.”

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Sandweg’s remarks came after Senator Rand Paul warned that Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s open defiance of Trump’s deportation plans could result in his removal from office.

“You know, I’m 100% supportive of going after the 15,000 murderers, the 13,000 sexual assault perpetrators, rapists—let’s send them on their way to prison or back home to another prison,” Paul asserted.

“We’ve had a long-standing distrust of putting the Army into our streets,” Paul explained.

Paul described the Mayor’s actions as a “form of insurrection,” which could have legal consequences.

“The mayor of Denver, if he’s going to resist federal law, which is a long-standing history of the supremacy of federal law, if he’s going to resist that, it will go all the way to the Supreme Court,” said Paul.

As we reported earlier this month, Trump’s deportation plans aim to double the 41,000 detention beds that Congress allowed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Illegal migrants would be held in such facilities before being flown back to their country of origin.

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