The San Diego County sheriff says her office will not change its practices with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after the county’s board of supervisors moved to further restrict that cooperation ahead of the Trump administration taking office next year.

“The sheriff’s office will not change its practices based on the board resolution and policy that was passed at today’s meeting,” Sheriff Kelly Martinez’s office said in a statement. “The board of supervisors does not set policy for the sheriff’s office. The sheriff, as an independently elected official, sets the policy for the sheriff’s office.”

The statement came after a 3-1 vote by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors on a resolution to restrict ICE cooperation with local law enforcement.

CALIFORNIA COUNTY VOTES TO RAMP UP SANCTUARY POLICIES AHEAD OF TRUMP DEPORTATION PUSH: ‘RADICAL POLICY’ 

The resolution says the county will not provide assistance or cooperation to ICE, “including by giving ICE agents access to individuals or allowing them to use County facilities for investigative interviews or other purposes, expending County time or resources responding to ICE inquiries or communicating with ICE regarding individuals’ incarceration status or release dates, or otherwise participating in any civil immigration enforcement activities.”

When ICE is aware of suspected illegal immigrants in local or state custody, it will file a detainer with law enforcement, typically requesting that the agency is notified ahead of the suspected illegal immigrants’ release and, in some cases, that they be held until ICE can take custody of them.

ICE says this helps detain illegal immigrants without having to go into communities and gets illegal immigrant offenders off the streets. Sanctuary proponents say that such policies chill cooperation between law enforcement and otherwise law-abiding illegal immigrants.

BLUE STATE COUNTY TEES UP VOTE ON ‘KNEE-JERK’ RESOLUTION TO PROTECT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FROM DEPORTATION

“When federal immigration authorities, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Border Patrol coerce local law enforcement to carry out deportations, family members are separated and community trust in law enforcement and local government is destroyed,” an overview of the resolution claims. 

“Witnesses and victims who are undocumented or who have loved ones who are undocumented are afraid to come to the County for help, which includes calling local law enforcement. This puts the public safety of all San Diegans at risk.”

Proponents of the resolution say California’s sanctuary law has too many loopholes and still allows agencies to notify ICE of release dates and transfer some individuals into their custody.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS

It was a claim with which Martinez disagreed.

Thomas Homan, the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, speaks during a Department of Homeland Security press conference to announce end-of-year numbers regarding immigration enforcement, border security and national security Dec. 5, 2017, in Washington, D.C.  (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

“As the sheriff of San Diego County, my No. 1 priority is protecting the safety and well-being of all residents of our diverse region. While protecting the rights of undocumented immigrants is crucial, it is equally important to ensure that victims of crimes are not overlooked or neglected in the process,” she said.

The San Diego County Sheriff is a nonpartisan office, but Martinez has identified as a Democrat personally.

“Victims include undocumented individuals. These vulnerable individuals express to me that their legal status is used as a weapon against them when offenders from their community victimize them,” she said. “We must protect the well-being of individuals, including those who are undocumented, which requires a careful approach that upholds the principles of justice, fairness and compassion for all individuals involved.”

It comes ahead of what is expected to be a historic mass deportation campaign by the incoming Trump administration. Incoming border czar Tom Homan has said no one is off the table when it comes to deportations, although public safety threats will be the priority.

A chilling scene in the new movie “Wicked” sums up what’s wrong with President-elect Donald Trump’s view of immigrants.

The two witches, Elphaba and Glinda, have traveled to the Emerald City to meet the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The Wizard explains to them that he plans to consolidate power over his restive land by demonizing its animals, who not only have the power of speech but are also the equals of human beings. He will strip them of the ability to speak and confine them to cages.

But why would you do such a thing, asks the tender-hearted, green-skinned Elphaba, whose horror at his plan will eventually turn her into the Wicked Witch of the West.

“The best way to bring folks together,” the Wonderful Wizard of Oz tells the women, “is to give them a really good enemy.”

That is the essence of Trump’s immigration policy.

Trump told Kristen Welker of NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he plans to keep his campaign promise to deport millions of people.

“You have no choice,” he said. “First of all, they’re costing us a fortune. But we’re starting with the criminals, and we’ve got to do it. And then we’re starting with the others, and we’re going to see how it goes.”

He then preposterously claimed that more than 13,000 undocumented “murderers” had been “released into our country over the last three years.”

“They’re walking down the streets,” he said. “They’re walking next to you and your family. And they’re very dangerous people.”

When Welker tried to point out that he was misconstruing the data, Trump doubled down: “It’s 13,099, and it’s during the Biden period of time. And these are murderers, many of whom murdered more than one person.”

This is, of course, false. The Department of Homeland Security reported that more than 13,000 noncitizens had been convicted of homicide in the U.S. over the past four decades, including during Trump’s first term. And most of them were in jails and prisons, not walking the streets.

I really can’t believe we are going to be forced to spend the next four years debunking Trump’s apocalyptic fantasies — nor how miserable he will make life for so many people based on his need to make enemies of people whose skin color does not match his own.

Whether immigrants “cost us a fortune” or not is one of the most studied questions in the entire field of immigration studies. Time and again, experts have concluded that immigrants do not cost U.S. taxpayers “a fortune,” depress wages, increase government deficits and debt, or commit a disproportionate share of crime.

At the dawn of the Biden administration, after four years of Trump’s immigrant-bashing, the immigration expert Alex Nowrasteh of the libertarian Cato Institute wrote a smart little booklet, “The Most Common Arguments Against Immigration and Why They’re Wrong.” It is a very helpful, easy-to-digest primer on the falsehoods typically leveled against immigration, legal and illegal.

The most repeated notion is that immigrants take jobs from Americans, lower their wages and hurt the poor. As Nowrasteh writes, this claim “has the greatest amount of evidence rebutting it.”

He cites a study by the Harvard labor economist and immigration scholar George Borjas, who found that between 1990 and 2010, the only group of people whose wages were negatively affected by immigrants were native-born high school dropouts, who make up about 9% of American adults. That group’s wages dropped by less than 2%. But Borjas also found that immigrants boosted the wages of other native-born Americans, yielding a net increase in native-born wages of about 0.6%.

I would love to put Nowrasteh’s booklet in Trump’s stocking this Christmas, but, as we’ve learned, he’s not big on reading.

So just how many people will Trump target for deportation? It’s impossible to know for sure, but you can bet he intends to inflict as much pain as he can.

Eleven million undocumented immigrants were living in the U.S. as of 2022, 6 million of whom were employed, according to the American Immigration Council. More than 1.5 million work in construction, making up about 13.7% of the workforce. Nearly a quarter-million work in agriculture, making up 12.7% of workers. A million work in the hospitality industry, or 7.1% of the workforce.

Trump’s incoming border “czar,” Tom Homan, has said the government will focus on deporting criminals first but that all immigrants in the country without papers will risk deportation.

Unsurprisingly, farm industry groups are frantically lobbying Trump to exempt agricultural workers from deportation. Builders say mass deportation would worsen current labor shortages and drive up home costs even further.

The scenario brings to mind the 2004 mockumentary “A Day Without a Mexican,” in which a mysterious shroud of fog descends on California and 14 million Latinos suddenly disappear, wreaking havoc on all sectors of the economy. Last summer, to celebrate the film’s 20th anniversary, the filmmakers Sergio Arau and Yareli Arizmendi screened it around the country.

“When we did a screening a month ago,” Arizmendi told my colleague Andrea Flores in July, “someone called me a prophet because this is exactly what Trump is saying today.”

Bluesky: @rabcarian.bsky.social. Threads: @rabcarian

VIDEO HERE

Outgoing Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen said that she’s “concerned about fiscal sustainability” and thinks the deficit must be decreased.

She made the comments during the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit after Greg Ip, chief economic commentator for the outlet, noted that President Joe Biden and Yellen are leaving behind a big budget deficit. “Are you sorry you couldn’t make more progress on that?” he asked. Ip also asked Yellen how much risk the issue presents to the economy.

“Well I am concerned about fiscal sustainability. And I am sorry that we haven’t made more progress. I believe that the deficit needs to be brought down, especially now that we’re in an environment of higher interest rates,” Yellen replied. 

BIDEN SAYS TRUMP INHERITING ‘STRONGEST ECONOMY IN MODERN HISTORY,’ SLAMS TARIFF PLAN AS ‘MAJOR MISTAKE’ 

Yellen helmed the Treasury Department during President Joe Biden’s White House tenure, but will soon step down as Biden’s term ends next month.

In that time, the already-massive national debt continued soaring to new heights, and has now surpassed $36 trillion.

“Today, the U.S. economy is in strong shape, with a robust labor market and solid economic growth. Tune in as I join @Greg_Ip at the @WSJ CEO Council Summit to discuss the economic progress we have made under the leadership of @POTUS and @VP,” Yellen declared in a post on X.

US NATIONAL DEBT HITS A NEW RECORD: $36 TRILLION

Yellen talks to reporters during a news conference at the Treasury Department on Oct. 22, 2024, in Washington, D.C.  (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Trump decisively defeated Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential contest, winning both the Electoral College and the popular vote.

The president-elect tapped Scott Bessent to serve as Treasury Department secretary in his upcoming administration.

“Scott is widely respected as one of the World’s foremost International Investors and Geopolitical and Economic Strategists,” Trump said in a statement last month.

YELLEN TOUTS IRS ENFORCEMENT AS HELPING CLOSE THE BUDGET DEFICIT

Yellen gives remarks at an event celebrating the Community Development Financial Institutions FUND (CDFI) at the U.S. Treasury Department on Nov. 21, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Yellen previously served as chair of the Federal Reserve Board of governors from early February 2014 through early February 2018.