Ronald Vitiello - Former Acting Director, I.C.E. Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Say what hard time here on Houston's Warning News. All right,
sanctuary cities, they still exist. Many of them are doubling
down on their policies and are basically opposing any sort
of Trump deportation program. Ron Betello joins this, former acting
director advice. Yeah, I kind of posed the question before
we brought Genren, and that is whose law supersedes who

(00:22):
can you pass a local ordinance that somehow supersedes federal law?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Well, thanks for inviting men, Good morning. Yeah, local jurisdictions
really can do whatever they want. The courts have you know,
I'm not a lawyer, but the courts have ruled several
times that the federal government has primacy, as they say
in the law with regard to immigration. So immigration law
is federal law because it affects every single American across

(00:49):
the country, and so they have primacy as it relates
to the courts and rulings of who can enforce immigration law,
what the what the statutes are, and so local ordinances
and what cities and states and towns do are important
for the people who live there. But at the end
of the day, if this thing goes all the way
to the highest court in the land, then the government

(01:10):
is likely the federal government is likely going to win.
And I will just say, you know, the premise of
a sanctuary city needs to be drilled into all of
our minds and think about the idea that here is someone,
you know, what are they saying, what are they given
sanctuary to. Here's someone who crossed the border in contrary
to federal law. It is a crime to cross the

(01:31):
border illegally for whatever reason, it is illegal, so that
that is how they step foot into the United States.
And then sometime while they're in the United States, they
broke a crime and a local jurisdiction and were arrested
by a sheriff for a local police officer. And so
who are you giving sanctions to. You're giving sanction to
someone who has broken the law of the federal government

(01:52):
crossing the border illegally and then came to a city
in town near you and you know, rob somebody, rape somebody,
or worse. And you're even sanctuary to criminals or people
who have been accused of criminals. And then you think
about in the state case like California, the entire state
calls themselves a jurisdiction. So people are getting out of
the penitentiary who've done heinous things and have spent decades

(02:15):
behind bars in the state penitentiary, and they refuse to
turn that person over to ICE authorities if they're from
a foreign country that need to be deported. So it
is destructive to the lives and livelihoods of American citizens
and it helps only criminals in this case.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Ron, when you were with ICE before, I'm sure you
had to deal with the local prosecutors in some of
these states like California that you know didn't want to
turn anybody over to ICE. How would they circumount the system?
And is there a way around that for ICE where
you can force them if they have an illegal immigrant
criminal in their jail, force them to turn them over.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Well, currently there's no way to force it. At the
tactical level. ICE officers that are responsible for finding people
who are followed the law for immigration and then done
or have a maybe have a green card and have
been convicted of serious crimes, which allows the government to
lift that card and send them through an immigration proceedings
for removal. Workaround is done tactically. You know, if someone

(03:18):
goes to a jail, they serve their sentence and you know,
in a place like Houston, and then they're released and
they're deportable, then ICE officers will go and find that
person at their home, at their place of business, et cetera.
So the workaround is that, you know, federal agencies do
use the prosecutors that are employed by the federal government

(03:40):
to use attorney's office to bring cases, to bring criminal cases,
and it's similar on the immigration side. If someone's in
the country illegally. ICE officers don't need the help of
local police departments. It sure is better if they have it,
And especially in the jail context, no safer place to
arrest a criminal in the jail than the jail and

(04:01):
turn them over to ICE officers to put them on
a path for removal or in front of an immigration
judge if their due process is still pending. On the
administrative side, well.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
That makes perfect sense. Well, one thing we know for
sure during the Trump administration, there'll be fewer people crossing
the border that we're gonna have to worry about. To
begin with, Thank you, sir, appreciate it. Former acting ICE
Director Ronald Vittello