DHS whistleblowers allege California's sanctuary protections are used by human traffickers

AP Photo/Felix Marquez

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Whistleblowers close to the Department of Homeland Security allege that California’s sanctuary state policy, which protects illegal aliens from arrest and deportation, is being used by human traffickers who operate the enterprise for Mexican drug cartels. 

California joined a number of other Democrat-led states to provide sanctuary for illegal immigrants through state policy in October 2017. The policy prohibits local law enforcement from cooperating with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and prevents police from asking about the legal status of suspects. 

The law, which was signed by former Gov. Jerry Brown, allows illegal aliens to obtain driver's licenses in the state, and vote in local elections that do not require U.S citizenship. 

In a report by Breitbart, whistleblowers close to the Department of Homeland Security said that the policy is a “vital tool for smugglers for the cartels who bring thousands of border crossers and illegal aliens to the United States-Mexico border every day.” 

“For example, in cases where federal immigration officials are trying to track down smugglers and the illegal aliens they are smuggling, whistleblowers said California local police almost never intervene to help with arrests,” the report stated.

A whistleblower who spoke to the publication said that law enforcement officers are “not allowed to intervene, ever,” and that the officers will even inform concerned citizens that they wish they could help, but aren’t allowed to. 

“The smugglers know all of this,” said the whistleblower. 

Another whistleblower told the publication that if illegal aliens are wearing seatbelts, local police will not call up the DHS to report smuggling. “So long as they’re following state laws,” he added. “The sheriffs cannot, by law, pick up migrants even if they had an ICE detainer after they finish their sentence, they’ll just let them loose.” 

Comments from the whistleblowers appear to be supported by California county data. Federal officials revealed in 2019 that Los Angeles county releases around 100 criminal illegals from local custody each day instead of turning them over to ICE for deportation, the Washington Times reported in 2019. 

“There’s a true cost,” said former ICE official Timothy Robbins. “ICE enforcement will no longer be in the jails. It’ll be in the communities — the same communities these sanctuary policies are trying to keep ICE out of. … I will have to send officers out onto the street, which is less safe for officers, the community and the subject at large.”