Politics
'Loud and clear': Border state's legislature moves to back Trump's ICE on deportations
FIRST ON FOX: Arizona’s legislature is considering significant legislation to ensure the key border state cooperates with the mass deportation push by the new Trump administration amid questions about the extent to which states will aid the government.
Senate President Warren Petersen, a Republican, is introducing the “AZ ICE Act,” which would require sheriff’s departments and the Arizona Department of Corrections to enter into co-operative agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The agreements are based on 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows ICE to delegate to state and local law enforcement officers certain immigration functions, including identifying and detaining suspected illegal immigrants.
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“The 287(g) program allows ICE — through the delegation of specified immigration officer duties — to enhance collaboration with state and local law enforcement partners to protect the homeland through the arrest and removal of noncitizens who undermine the safety of our nation’s communities and the integrity of U.S. immigration laws,” ICE’s website says.
Petersen’s bill would also require law enforcement to comply with ICE detainers — which are requests that ICE be notified when an illegal immigrant is being released from state or local custody. “Sanctuary” jurisdictions do not comply with detainers.
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The bill would also direct additional funding to local law enforcement.
“Ending the border crisis requires an all-hands-on-deck approach. This commonsense legislation will not only allow federal and local law enforcement to work together to protect our citizens, but it will also prevent government obstruction,” Petersen said in a statement.
“Arizona voters spoke loud and clear last November. They overwhelmingly approved the ‘Secure the Border Act’ that Republicans referred to the ballot because they want the law enforced, and they want safe communities,” he said. “I look forward to the AZ ICE Act passing the Legislature, and I’m hopeful the Governor will listen to our citizens by signing the bill when it hits her desk.”
President Donald Trump was sworn into office on Monday and immediately signed a slew of executive orders to tackle border security and illegal immigration. His administration is planning to launch a mass deportation operation and is already taking steps to make that happen.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE
Some local jurisdictions have pledged their support for the measures, but other officials have promised to either resist or not comply with the upcoming deportation operation.
Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, told ABC News in November that she was hopeful that ongoing partnerships with the federal government can continue, but she said the state would not be complying with what she called a “misguided” deportation operation.
“I am very hopeful that that partnership can continue, and that the incoming administration will listen to, not only my administration, but the experts here on the ground, the people that are doing the work about what is most needed, and what we can continue to do that will be most helpful in securing our border,” she said.
She then added, “What I will unequivocally say is that, as governor, I will not tolerate efforts that are part of misguided policies that harm our communities, that threaten our communities, that terrorize our communities, and Arizona will not take part in those.”
Politics
What to Know About Trump’s Broad Grant of Clemency to Jan. 6 Rioters
Follow live updates on the start of the Trump administration.
President Trump granted three different types of reprieve on Monday to all of the nearly 1,600 people who faced prosecution for the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
He issued formal pardons to hundreds of rioters convicted of any crimes connected to Jan. 6, starting at the low end with offenses like trespassing and disorderly conduct and increasing in severity to assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy.
Mr. Trump also commuted the sentences of 14 members of two far-right groups, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers militia. Most of those defendants were convicted on sedition charges and were serving prison terms of up to 18 years. Under the commutations, their sentences will be reduced to time served.
In a separate but related move, Mr. Trump ordered his Justice Department to dismiss any criminal indictments that remained pending against Jan. 6 defendants. And he directed the Bureau of Prisons to “immediately implement” his clemency grants, meaning that the 240 or so rioters behind bars could be released as early as Monday night.
Misdemeanor Defendants
Mr. Trump’s pardons and his demands for cases to be dismissed covered about 1,000 nonviolent offenders — the largest single group granted clemency. Those defendants were charged only with misdemeanor counts associated with the Capitol attack like breaching the restricted grounds of the Capitol or illegally entering the building itself, but were never accused of breaking anything or hurting anyone.
But even though they may not have committed acts of violence, a federal appeals court has ruled that each person who joined the mob on Jan. 6, “no matter how modestly behaved,” still contributed to the chaos at the Capitol.
Couy Griffin, a former local official from Otero County, N.M., was typical of defendants like this. Mr. Griffin, the founder of a group called Cowboys for Trump, was found guilty of illegally climbing over walls in the restricted grounds of the Capitol and sentenced to 14 days in prison.
Two years ago, Mr. Griffin was removed from his post after a trial under the 14th Amendment’s prohibition on insurrectionists holding office. He was the first public official to be removed that way in more than a century.
Assault Cases
The pardons and pending dismissals also covered more than 600 rioters were charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement officers at the Capitol, nearly 175 of whom were accused of doing so with deadly or dangerous weapons including baseball bats, two-by-fours, crutches, hockey sticks and broken wooden table legs.
The assault defendants have been sentenced to some of the longest prison terms of any of the Jan. 6 rioters. David Dempsey, a member of the Proud Boys from California, received the stiffest penalty for assault — 20 years in prison.
Prosecutors say Mr. Dempsey engaged in a sustained attack against multiple officers at the Capitol, using his hands, his feet, a flagpole, crutches, pepper spray and broken pieces of furniture.
Mr. Dempsey was so aggressive on Jan. 6 that at one point he assaulted a fellow rioter who was trying to disarm him. He also stood beside a gallows outside the Capitol and called for the hanging of prominent Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former President Barack Obama.
Conspiracy Cases
The most prominent defendant convicted of conspiracy charges and pardoned by Mr. Trump was Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, who was found guilty of seditious conspiracy at a trial with four of his lieutenants.
Mr. Tarrio’s situation on Jan. 6 was unique. He was not in Washington that day, having been kicked out of the city days earlier by a local judge presiding over separate criminal charges brought against him for vandalizing a Black church a month before the Capitol attack.
Still, prosecutors said Mr. Tarrio kept in touch with compatriots as they assumed positions in the vanguard of the mob and played a central role in both committing violence and encouraging others to engage in violence at the Capitol.
Mr. Trump used a different method to grant clemency to Mr. Tarrio’s co-defendants in the sedition trial — Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Zach Rehl and Dominic Pezzola, who is best known for having shattered one of the first windows at the Capitol with a stolen police riot shield. Mr. Trump commuted their sentences, reducing them from as much as 18 years in prison to time served. And he did the same for a former Proud Boy named Jeremy Bertino, who turned on his compatriots and testified against them at the trial.
Mr. Trump also commuted the 18-year sedition sentence imposed on Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers, another far-right group that was instrumental in the riot. Eight other members of the Oath Keepers — most of them convicted of seditious conspiracy — had their sentences commuted as well.
Politics
Sen. Amy Klobuchar says she used her access to nudge Trump on L.A. wildfire recovery
WASHINGTON — Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the chief of the inaugural transition, acknowledged the difficulty of overseeing the handoff of power to President Trump in the site where his followers sought to overthrow election results but also said it was important for herself and other Democrats to acknowledge Trump’s 2024 victory.
“We had a job to do,” said Klobuchar, the chairwoman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, which worked for two years on planning the transition, in an interview Monday night. “And that’s why President Obama came and President Clinton, they were well aware of what had happened in that request. But that was our job.”
Asked whether it was difficult to speak at the inauguration of Trump, whom Klobuchar did not vote for, she replied, “Well, everything about this can be a little hard.”
But she added that she sought to use the opportunity to impress upon Trump the need to support Los Angeles’ recovery from the wildfires as well as the importance of the 2028 Olympic Games in Southern California. “That’s important,” Klobuchar said.
In the introduction of Monday’s inauguration ceremony in the historic Capitol Rotunda, Klobuchar coyly touched upon the dichotomy of the formal swearing-in taking place in the same place Trump’s supporters stormed as they tried to stop the certification of his 2020 loss.
“Today President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect Vance will take their oath of office and we will witness the peaceful transfer of power at the heart of our democracy,” said Klobuchar, who ran for president in 2020 before dropping out and endorsing Biden. “Our theme this year is our enduring democracy. The presence of so many presidents and vice presidents here today is truly a testament to that endurance.”
Politics
Video: Trump Pardons Nearly All Involved in Jan. 6 Attack
On his first day back in office, President Trump pardoned all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Maggie Haberman, White House correspondent for The New York Times, describes what’s behind those pardons.
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