governor of utah spencer cox During a PBS press conference on Thursday, he criticized the Biden administration for failing Americans “at every turn” on immigration enforcement issues.
Confirming a previous Deseret News report, Cox said that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will not transfer all immigrants who violate state law after entering the country illegally to a detention center in Nevada, and will instead transfer some immigrants to Nevada detention centers. He said he was choosing to release the child into the community.
States can detain these “law breakers” beyond the period prescribed by the criminal justice system, giving ICE time to begin deportation proceedings, “but the Biden administration have put in place rules that make it impossible for them to do that,” Cox said. He said. “This is very frustrating and it's frustrating for our sheriffs.”
Is Utah holding immigrants who break the law?
Undocumented immigrants arrested on criminal charges are held in Utah prisons and processed through Utah's judicial system like other criminals, the Deseret News reported.
“We detain immigrants who enter the country illegally and commit crimes,” Cox said.
Criminals who enter the country illegally are notified by Immigration and Customs Enforcement before being released. After release, the immigrants will be turned over to ICE officers and taken to formal detention centers.
However, as the Deseret News previously reported, there are no ICE detention centers in Utah. That's largely due to the Biden administration's onerous detention requirements. Cox said Southern Nevada has an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center that works with ICE offices in Utah, Idaho and Montana.
“The federal government is supposed to move these illegal immigrants and lawbreakers into detention facilities where they can be processed,” Cox said.
But that hasn't happened in all cases, leading the Salt Lake City field office to quickly rescind a memo last year that designated Utah a sanctuary state. This claim has been repeated by several political candidates, including Cox's primary challenger in the state. Rep. Phil Lyman, R-Blanding;
Why doesn't Utah have an ICE detention facility?
Cox said Utah authorities lease multiple facilities to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to properly process undocumented immigrants who violate state law.
“We want to create a storage facility here, and we've made some suggestions to facilitate that so that we don't have this backlog with transportation,” Cox said. Ta. “And they declined our offer. Unfortunately, I think they like this problem and they like to make it worse. And that's very frustrating.”
After meeting with the Department of Public Safety, the National Security Council, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, and even reaching out directly to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Cox said, “We are moving in a better direction.'' We're heading toward that,” he said.
Cox said authorities need more resources to enforce U.S. immigration laws, but “we can do more with the resources we have.”
“The federal government is failing this country on every front when it comes to border security, processing illegal immigrants, and deporting people who break the law,” Cox said. “And it's not a Utah problem. It happens in every state.”
