(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch
announced today that it filed a lawsuit on behalf of a County of Santa
Clara, CA, taxpayer to overturn a policy that protects aliens in Santa
Clara County’s custody from removal proceedings by federal immigration
authorities. The taxpayer lawsuit, filed on behalf of Howard Myers, is
against Laurie Smith, sheriff of Santa Clara County and Carl Neusel,
acting chief of correction of Santa Clara County (Howard A. Myers v. Laurie Smith et al. (No. 19-CV-353510)).
Santa Clara County Board Policy 3.54(B) requires
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to obtain a “judicial
arrest warrant” in order for the county to transfer custody of an alien.
Federal law however does not require “judicial arrest warrants” for
federal authorities to detain aliens, especially for those who had been
incarcerated or arrested by local authorities.
Judicial Watch is asking the court to grant an injunction against the sanctuary policy because:
- It is an “illegal local regulation of immigration;”
- It is “preempted by federal law;” and
- It is “barred by the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity,” which prevents a state from intruding on the federal government’s sovereignty.
On February 28, 2019, Bambi Larson,
a Santa Clara County resident, was murdered inside her San Jose home.
According to court documents, she suffered extensive and deep wounds
consistent with a cutting tool. A few weeks later, Carlos
Arevalo-Carranza was arrested and charged with Larson’s murder.
Arevalo-Carranza reportedly had multiple, prior convictions in Santa
Clara County, including a conviction for burglary in 2015, convictions
for battery of an officer, resisting arrest, and entering a property in
2016, and a conviction for false imprisonment in 2017.
He also reportedly had multiple, prior arrests in
2015-2018 in both Santa Clara County and Los Angeles County, including
arrests for possession of drug paraphernalia and methamphetamine,
prowling, and false identification. At the time of Larson’s death,
Arevalo-Carranza reportedly was on probation for possession of drug
paraphernalia and methamphetamine, false imprisonment, and burglary.
ICE officials sent six separate requests to Santa
Clara County, when Arevalo-Carranza was about to be released from its
custody, asking that he be detained long enough for federal immigration
officials to take him into custody for removal proceedings. Each request
was ignored because of Santa Clara County’s sanctuary policies.
In March 2019, San Jose officials reportedly “criticized
so-called sanctuary policies they say prevented federal authorities
from detaining a gang member in the country illegally before he
allegedly killed a woman.” The murderer was a, “self-admitted gang
member,” with a “long criminal history in the San Francisco Bay Area and
Los Angeles spanning five years.”
“Sanctuary policies are illegal and deadly,” said
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Judicial Watch has been a leader
(and often the only) legal opponent to sanctuary policies that ignore
federal and state laws concerning immigration at the expense of the
public’s safety, the rule of law, and our national security. Our new
taxpayer lawsuit simply seeks to stop tax dollars from being spent on a
sanctuary policy that harms public safety and undermines the rule of
law.”
Judicial Watch is also pursuing a taxpayer lawsuit against San Francisco’s illegal immigrant sanctuary policies, which is scheduled to go to trial in 2020.
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