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So the Department of Homeland Security has been, you could say, relatively busy over the last little while. Let's go through the most recent top line developments, starting with this one right here. It was a warning that Homeland Security issued to three states, California, New York and Illinois. Now, as you likely already know, those three states are sanctuary states, meaning that the local governments there, they refuse to work with the feds, specifically ice, to deport illegal aliens. So this winds up creating a dangerous situation for the ICE agents on the ground because, as just one example, if you have an illegal alien criminal who's arrested in one of those three states for committing a crime, the state police does not inform ICE about it. Instead, they let the illegal alien walk free if they post bail or if they serve their sentence. And then the ICE agents, they have to go out into the field to find the criminals themselves, which is, as you can imagine, both dangerous as well as time consuming. And so to try and mitigate the situation, or to at least try to clarify the situation, on September 10th of this year, the Department of Homeland Security sent this letter right here to the attorney General of those three states, California, New York and Illinois. And the letter simply asked for clarification on, quote, whether those states would notify ICE when illegal immigrants are set to be released from jail or prison so that they can be transferred into the agency's custody. Now, as a response, the attorneys general of New York and Illinois, they responded to that letter by saying that they will not be complying. And California simply did not issue a response at all. And so 10 days later, which was September 20th, the Department of Homeland Security followed up with those three states by issuing the warning that I alluded to at the top of the episode. You can see that warning on your screen right now in that notice. The there were several points of note. The first was that it included 17 concrete examples of illegal alien criminals who were released from either state jail or state prison and sent back into the community rather than being handed over to ice. And the list includes, you can say, some unsavory characters, such as an illegal alien from Vietnam who failed to register as a sex offender, who drove with a suspended license, as well as a hit and run. You had an illegal alien from Mexico with a criminal history of rape, another illegal alien from Mexico with a criminal history of domestic abuse. You had an illegal alien from Iraq with convictions for felony assault as well as assault with a deadly weapon with an intention to kill. You had an illegal alien from Venezuela who happened to be a Trenderogua gang member with a criminal History of aggravated use of a weapon, sexual assault, domestic battery and kidnapping, and so on and so forth. There are a lot of concrete examples of again, criminals who were physically in state custody, but then they were released back into society, American society, rather than handed over to ICE to be deported. Now, an official with the Homeland Security Department alongside this notice, she issued a statement regarding this whole situation by saying the following, quote, these dangerous sanctuary policies, often combined with cashless bail for serious crimes, allow criminal illegal aliens to be released back into American communities, threatening the American people's lives and well being. ICE detainers ask for something very simple to notify ICE when criminal illegal aliens are released from jail or prison to ensure that they go into ICE custody before they are released back into our streets. These sanctuary state politicians should do the right thing and side with law abiding Americans over criminal illegal aliens. The warning then went on to say that it would of course be better if the states were cooperating, but even if they don't, ICE will still do what it needs to do in those states, which, by the way, is exactly what's happening. For instance, in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, one of those three states, ICE conducted a series of raids as a part of what they refer to as Operation Midway Blitz. Quote, immigration authorities have arrested nearly 550 people in the Chicago area in less than two weeks as a part of Operation Midway Blitz, a major crackdown that officials from the Department of Homeland Security describe as targeting dangerous criminals shielded by Illinois sanctuary policies. Now, a Homeland Security Department spokeswoman told us here at the Epoch Times via email that Operation Midway Blitz, it was specifically targeting what she referred to as some of the worst, most dangerous criminal illegal aliens in Chicago. However, that aside, the political leadership in Illinois was not thrilled with Operation Midway Blitz. Specifically, you had Illinois Governor J.D. pritzker say the this isn't about fighting crime that requires support and coordination. Yet we've experienced nothing like that over the past several weeks. Instead of taking steps to work with us on public safety, the Trump administration is focused on scaring Illinoisans. Likewise, you had the mayor of Chicago, Mr. Brandon Johnson. He called ICE basically a secret police force that is terrorizing his community.
