Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Thursday that the country’s courthouses should generally be immigration enforcement-free zones, similar to schools and hospitals, where the government already won’t try to target illegal immigrants.
“Courthouses are special. We ought to have a special policy with regard to courthouses,” Mr. Johnson said as he testified to Congress, discussing how he wants to set enforcement priorities for the immigration law enforcement agencies within his department.
Prodded by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat who said there were even reports of a man being arrested for immigration violations when he went to a courthouse to get married, Mr. Johnson said courthouses should be treated differently.
He said there are exceptions, such as a major public safety threat who federal, state or local authorities believe needs to be gotten of the street so quickly that a courthouse arrest is appropriate. But he promised to take a look at department priorities.
Mr. Johnson was testifying to the House Judiciary Committee, where Republicans repeatedly prodded him on the different categories of illegal immigrants that he has put off-limits for deportations.
The secretary is in the middle of a review that would expand existing non-deportation policies, trying to make them more humane and effective.
But he said he is respecting the White House, which earlier this week announced it had asked him to delay final decisions until later this summer. The White House said it wanted to give Congress a chance to pass immigration bills in the next two months.
Mr. Johnson wouldn’t tip his hand as to steps he is leaning toward, but said overall he believes previous non-deportation orders may have been unclear and have scared off localities.
“I see a certain lack of clarity in the prioritization and the guidance, and I think we could do a better job there,” he said.
Republicans, though, said the Homeland Security Department has already overstepped its limits in declining to go after a number of illegal immigrants.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Robert W. Goodlatte said the department has created “immigration-enforcement free zones.”
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/29/dhs-johnson-agents-shouldnt-target-illegals-courts/#ixzz337vU3QzK
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