‘You jeopardize safety’: Rep. Jim Jordan investigates Washington over sanctuary state policy

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) announced this month that his committee is investigating sanctuary policies in Washington state. He explained in an exclusive interview on “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH that this is about public safety—citing an incident in sanctuary city Denver where a suspect was in custody, was released, and had to be re-arrested.

“They had a guy in custody, ICE sends a detainer, which is a document that says, ‘Can you hold this guy, or can you give us 48 hours’ notice before you release this guy?’ And this guy had been in for aggravated assault, he’d been in for stealing the car, did charges with all those things. They had him in custody for 345 days, and they couldn’t give ICE 48 hours’ notice. They called him up like an hour before they released him, and ICE couldn’t get there till they released him out on the street. They had to re-arrest him and an officer got attacked. They had to tase the migrant. Just ridiculous. These sanctuary city policies just defy common sense.”

“You jeopardize the safety of the public when you let these guys out; you jeopardize the safety of law enforcement,” he added.

Lawmakers criticize AG Brown for Adam County Sheriff’s Office lawsuit

Jordan, along with Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Chairman Tom McClintock (CA-05), and Congressman Baumgartner (WA-05), accused Washington Attorney General Nick Brown of prioritizing “the needs of criminal illegal aliens over Washingtonians.” The lawmakers chastised Brown for using “taxpayer resources to file a lawsuit against the Adams County Sheriff’s Office for its cooperation with federal immigration officials to ensure dangerous criminal aliens were removed from Washington communities.”

“What we did do is we had the sheriff in, and he testified today, and our subcommittee did a great job, and we will look at all three levers that we have to impact this,” Jordan said. “We will look at legislation, we will look at the appropriations process, and then we’ll continue to oversight. We’ll continue to have hearings that highlight how ridiculous this is.”

The Republican lawmakers are asking for a series of documents around the decision to sue the Adams County Sheriff. They also want to know the number of ICE detainers that have been declined by state and local law enforcement officials. Jordan also brought up the idea of withholding funding.

“You use the power of the purse, and you say, ‘If you’re a sanctuary city, some of that grant money you’re getting from the federal government, from the federal taxpayer, we’re going to hold that back,” he said. “I think that is big leverage, too. And then we’ve had legislation that says ‘You’re a sanctuary city, you’re not going to get federal funds.’ So that’s already been introduced and out there. So I think all those and then just draw attention to it.”

Listen to The Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3-7 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here. Follow Jason Rantz on X, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.

Follow @https://twitter.com/jasonrantz