Mayor Michael Hancock rejected threats by Thomas Homan, director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who said politicians running sanctuary cities should be charged with crimes.
Homan told Fox News Channel’s Neil Cavuto on Tuesday that the Department of Justice should deny funding to cities not cooperating with federal immigration authorities and should even file charges.
“In Denver, we stand firmly for the ideals of inclusion, acceptance and opportunity, and no threat will ever make us waver from that,” the mayor’s office told The Denver Post. “We won’t let the hate and wrong-thinking of others divide us or our city, and we will continue taking steps that reassure residents that we have their backs as the White House continues to use bravado and bluster as a substitute for real solutions.”
In September, 63 people living in the Denver area were apprehended by federal immigration authorities in “Operation Safe City,” in which ICE said it targeted cities that deny its agents access to jails. At the time, the agency said the operation specifically took place in cities where ICE deportation officers are not allowed access to jails to interview people and in jurisdictions in which ICE detainers are not honored.
The statement indicates ICE considers Denver to be a sanctuary city despite efforts by Hancock to find middle ground when it comes to protecting immigrant residents and cooperating with federal immigration agents.
In August, Hancock worked out a compromise with City Council members, who were pushing for a more defiant stance against ICE and promoting creation of a city immigration ordinance. Hancock said he did not want to entice the White House to intensify immigration arrests in Denver.
Under the ordinance, the Denver Sheriff Department continues to notify federal immigration authorities when it is about to release immigrants who are wanted on a detainer. However, the sheriff’s department will not hold inmates wanted on a detainer past their normal release time just because ICE has a detainer.
The department also does not allow ICE agents to interview inmates at the city’s two jails unless those agents have an arrest warrant.
There is no legal definition of what constitutes a sanctuary city. Denver doesn’t have an ordinance staking out a claim or barring information-sharing with federal officials about a person’s immigration status but it is among cities that don’t enforce immigration laws or honor federal “detainer” requests to hold immigrants with suspect legal status in jail past their release dates.
Denver has taken other recent steps to assuage concerns of immigrants, including the council’s approval in May of sentencing reductions for local ordinance violations, a move portrayed by Hancock as keeping low-level offenders off ICE’s radar.
Denver Post staff writer Noelle Phillips contributed to this report.
