After the brutal murder of Ruby Garcia by a drunk illegal who ran her over and shot her during a botched carjacking in Grand Rapids last week, State Rep. Matt Hall is introducing legislation banning “sanctuaries” for illegals in Michigan.
Representing an area just outside Kalamazoo and Portage in Southwest Michigan, Hall is also the House Republican Leader.
Kent County, the region Ruby was murdered, is considered a “Sanctuary County” for illegals because of its controversial ICE policy enacted by the Sheriff in 2019.
According to a Detroit Free Press report from 2019:
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the White House criticized a county in Michigan this week for having what they called a “sanctuary” policy which they said threatens public safety by not holding immigrants for ICE beyond their release date without a judicial warrant.
In January, Kent County Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young told ICE that her department will not agree to immigrant detainer requests from ICE unless they have a judicial warrant from a judge. Her move came amid an uproar from civil rights advocates after Grand Rapids Police and Kent County had handed over to ICE a Latino suspect born in the U.S. who was a U.S. citizen and Marine veteran, Jilmar Ramos-Gomez.
ICE says the new policy by the Kent County Sheriff is dangerous; civil rights advocates defended the sheriff’s move.
Kent County’s policy change “negatively impacts public safety and ICE’s efficiency in the apprehension of criminal aliens,” ICE said. The federal immigration agency said opponents of detainers without warrants “wish to undermine immigration enforcement and excuse the ill-conceived practices of sanctuary jurisdictions that put politics before public safety.”
Aside from Kent County, other “sanctuaries” for illegals in Michigan include East Lansing, along with Ingham, Kalamazoo, and Wayne counties.
