San Diego County officials to vote on cooperation with ICE
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors will vote Tuesday on a new proposal to determine whether they'll continue to use county resources to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement with deportations.
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) -- The San Diego County Board of Supervisors will vote Tuesday on a new proposal to determine whether they'll continue to use county resources to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement with deportations.
The plan would stop the county's support in mass deportations, which Morgan Principi, the legal director with Pathways to Citizenship, says could keep families together.
“Most likely they have a spouse or a child or a parent who is a U.S. citizen that relies on them as the main breadwinner,” Principi said.
But, the Fifth District Supervisor Jim Desmond said the new legislation could prevent ICE from deporting criminals in San Diego.
“They’re here illegally. They’ve committed crimes. I don’t think that’s the type of people we want," Desmond said. "We want immigrants, but we want law-abiding immigrants."
The legislation wouldn't interfere with federal criminal investigations, but it would leave ICE with the responsibility to handle immigration enforcement.
“Yea, if we want to get people out of the criminal system and deport them, but I think people would be very shocked to find out that that's a very small percentage of the people that are incarcerated in San Diego,” Principi claimed.
If passed, the county won't give ICE access to people or allow federal agents to use county facilities for interviews.
“Whatever side of the deportation equation you’re on, I think deporting criminals is the right thing to do," Desmond said.
Counties in Southern California like Santa Clara County already passed legislation to reduce cooperation with ICE.
When Vargas introduced the plan, she wrote in the San Diego Union Tribune, “We’re committed to using local resources to address pressing community needs, not to enforce federal immigration policies."
Now, it's San Diego County's turn to vote.
“We have to decide as a county whether or not we’re willing to spend our tax money on it,” Principi said.
Counties in Southern California like Santa Clara already passed legislation to reduce cooperation with ICE.
Now, it’s the San Diego Board of Supervisors turn to vote on the proposal Tuesday morning it needs three votes to pass.
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