Matthew Albence, the acting director of ICE, is saying that if New York and Denver law enforcement officials continue to refuse the agency's subpoena requests, then the officials "can show up to court with a toothbrush because they might not be going home that night."
Albence said this at a press conference two days ago. He's also hoping this more aggressive approach against so-called sanctuary cities will scare other jurisdictions into cooperating.
"Hopefully maybe when some of these other jurisdictions that don't want to cooperate will see and maybe they'll come around and try to help their own communities," Albence said.
Albence's comments come a little over a week after a public tiff between ICE and Denver officials over administrative subpoenas filed by the federal law enforcement agency to get more information about four individuals. denverpost.com/2020/01/15/ice…
Chad Sublet of Denver City Attorney's Office wrote to ICE: "Unless there is an order issued by a court of competent jurisdiction, there is no avenue to hold anyone in...Denver in contempt for failure to produce documents or information in response to the documents you sent."
ICE says that it has authority under federal law to issue subpoenas that are signed by an ICE officer, not a federal judge. Denver is saying that unless a judge orders the city to comply with such a subpoena, law enforcement officials won't comply with them.
I imagine this'll be settled one way or another by a judge here.
And the toothbrush scenario would only possibly happen if the dispute went to court, a judge ruled that Denver had to comply with the subpoenas, and then Denver refused to comply.
If things were to go that far and turn out that way, then I believe the toothbrush scenario would involve Sheriff Fran Gomez, since she is the one listed on the subpoenas. So would Gomez jail herself...?
I wrote about it: westword.com/news/ice-direc…
