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The Department of Justice on Thursday issued requests to sheriffs in multiple large California counties—including Los Angeles and San Francisco counties—for lists of all inmates in their jails who are not citizens of the United States.
The requests also include the illegal immigrant’s charges or conviction, and their scheduled release dates, according to a news release from the DOJ’s Office of Public Affairs.
“In recent years, the United States suffered an invasion of illegal aliens at an unprecedented scale,” officials wrote in the release. “Far too many of those illegal aliens have gone on to commit crimes on American soil, including rapes, murders, and other violent crimes. Today’s data requests are designed to assist federal immigration authorities in prioritizing the removal of illegal aliens who committed crimes after illegally entering the United States.”
Although every illegal immigrant by definition has violated federal law, the DOJ said those who go on to commit crimes after coming into the country illegally pose a heightened risk to the nation’s safety and security.
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“Removing criminal illegal aliens is this Administration’s highest priority,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in the release. “I look forward to cooperating with California’s county sheriffs to accomplish our shared duty of keeping Californians and all Americans safe and secure.”
The DOJ said it “hopes” California sheriffs will voluntarily produce the requested information, but if necessary, the department will “pursue all available means of obtaining the data, including through subpoenas or other compulsory process.”
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The requests come weeks after Border Czar Tom Homan, on Fox News’ “Kudlow,” vowed to “double down and triple down” on sanctuary cities that are obstructing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations.
“President [Donald] Trump made it clear two weeks ago, we are going to double down and triple down the sanctuary cities,” Homan said. “If we can’t arrest that bad guy in the jail, then we’ll go to the community and we’ll find him.”
Multiple lawsuits have been filed by the state against the Trump administration regarding immigration enforcement.
Most recently, the administration filed a request with the courts to suspend a temporary restraining order that was issued Friday against ICE after a Biden-appointed judge ruled the agency likely violated constitutional protections during raids in Los Angeles.
Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner and Fox News’ Matt Finn contributed to this report.
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