If you're in the country illegally, it shouldn't come as a surprise to you that you are arrested upon coming in contact with authorities, even if you initiated the 911 call.
That is what one illegal immigrant found out the hard way after calling 911 Thursday and being turned over to Immigration Custom Enforcement agents on a warrant.
Now, the Tukwila Police Department is fighting backlash from the immigrant community and claiming they will not respond to "administrative warrants" coming from ICE.
The refusal to comply with federal authorities has resulted in dangerous criminals being 'caught and released' before going on to commit heinous acts such as murder and rape.
The only reason this illegal was turned over to ICE was that it turned out to be an accident. The Tukwila police didn't realize the warrant they were executing came from ICE because it was in a format they had never seen before.
Tukwila Police Department's deputy chief spent a long time reaching out to other police chiefs in the area and making sure other departments are aware of what the warrants from ICE look like.
Jorge Baron, executive director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project said, "Every time people hear about this, they're going to wonder, well, if I call another police department is the same thing going to happen to me?"
Yes, Baron, that's the idea. If you are a felon, and entering the country illegally is a felony, then you are subject to arrest and detention just like anyone else, even if you're a so-called "protected class" like illegal immigrants.
The 911 was issued from a house in the 4000 block of South 148th Street of Tukwila when an illegal immigrant from Honduras called the police to report someone suspicious.
Within an hour of making the call, the illegal was in ICE custody.
"It’s sad. It's sad. It's just unfortunate that he thought he was doing the right thing, and at the end of the day he was detained for that," said neighbor Angela Canady.
How is sneaking into the country illegally and then continuing to break the law by never even making an attempt to become a legal citizen doing the right thing?
The Tukwila police outed their own incompetence on Facebook saying, "Officers believed that they were executing a valid order from a judge in the form of a criminal warrant."
Refusing to comply with federal authorities from Immigration Customs Enforcement is a crime in some states. It is time for 'sanctuary cities' to come to an end and local authorities need to lead by example.
How can police claim to be servants of the law when they pick and chose which laws they will follow?
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Anonymous calls are incredibly helpful to police. Despite that, if an illegal does something incredibly upstanding for an American citizen, perhaps saves a life, perhaps, perhaps there should be a rarely-granted petition to give him some points with ICE, say VIP deportation. Upgrade them to first class. Doubt there would be many of them.