Federal officials are pointing to a recent shootout between a California deputy and an illegal immigrant as the latest example of how so-called “sanctuary” policies are playing out with deadly consequences.
Body camera footage released by the Napa County Sheriff’s Office last week captured the episode that nearly cost Deputy Riley Jarecki her life on Feb. 17.
The brief 48-second clip shows Jarecki approach a Honda parked in southern Napa County around 11 p.m., when she encountered Javier Hernandez-Morales in the driver’s seat. The video shows Jarecki converse with the 43-year-old from the passenger’s side of the car, then walk behind the vehicle to the other side and order the man to roll down the window.
The video shows Hernandez-Morales fiddle around in the car and roll down the window, then reach out with a revolver and fire at least one shot at Jarecki, who retreated back behind the car to the passenger’s side and unloaded her handgun into the driver.
Sheriff’s deputies told the San Francisco Chronicle the .22-caliber gun was stolen, and they found a second .22 rifle in the vehicle afterwards. Hernandez-Morales died at the scene, while Jarecki was uninjured.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement explained why the dangerous situation never should have happened in public statement condemning the state’s vow to work against the agency.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law sanctuary protections for illegal immigrants in 2017 that prohibits local law enforcement from honoring detainers issued by ICE, which prefers to collect illegal immigrants directly from jail rather than through raids or other more dangerous operations. The detainers give ICE officers a heads up when wanted illegal immigrant criminals are released to allow re-arrest for federal crimes without endangering the public.
The California sanctuary law, which took effect in 2018, protected Hernandez-Morales from federal arrest and deportation on several occasions, though he had been deported three times in the past.
ICE officials told The Chronicle the agency issued four separate detainers for Hernandez-Morales since 2011 – during jail stints for drunken driving, battery of a peace officer, selling liquor to a minor and parole violations – but jail staff in Napa and Sonoma counties simply ignored the requests.
“This incident may have been prevented if ICE had been notified about any of the multiple times Hernandez-Morales was released from local custody over the years,” ICE officials wrote in a statement. “This is an impactful, scary example of how public safety is affected by laws or policies limiting local law enforcement agencies’ ability to cooperate with ICE.”
The shootout in California is one of countless examples of the real life consequences of sanctuary policies that have made headlines in recent months.
There was a situation with drunk illegal immigrant Eduardo de la Lima Vargas towing a loaded horse trailer that killed an Oregon couple on a motorcycle in the state capitol last fall. Another man, illegal immigrant Martin Gallo-Gallardo, was arrested for allegedly assaulting his wife in March and released despite an ICE detainer, only to be arrested again in October for the woman’s murder.
Both men were protected by Oregon’s sanctuary laws, which shields nearly 1,000 foreign nationals in state prisons who are currently wanted by ICE for deportation, the Associated Press reports.
An ICE investigation of New York’s sanctuary laws last year revealed that during the first three months of 2018, the agency issued more than 440 detainers that were ignored by the New York Police Department or New York Department of Corrections.
As a result, the wanted illegal immigrant criminals were released and at least 40 committed new crimes, including possession of a controlled substance, grand larceny, assault, robbery, intimidation, possession of a weapon, and criminal contempt, according to an ICE statement.

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