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<\/a>A protester is arrested on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2015. According to the press release from Alliance for Citizenship, many people were \u201cprotesting inside the Capitol Hill offices of Republican 2016 hopefuls, leadership, and outspoken anti-immigrant leaders.\u201d<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n
By Stephen Dinan
\nThe Washington Times<\/p>\n
The U.S. Capitol itself follows a sanctuary city policy that protects illegal immigrants from being turned over to deportation agents, a Republican congressman said Friday, announcing new legislation to scrap that policy.<\/p>\n
Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican, said Capitol Police don\u2019t have clear permission to handle immigration violations, so they often don\u2019t bother to check the legal status of those they arrest for other offenses in the Capitol complex.<\/p>\n
That leads to bizarre situations where illegal immigrants proudly proclaim their unauthorized status in the U.S., while protesting or blockading offices. They are processed and released without being turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Capitol Police, a federal law enforcement agency, do not have explicit statutory authority to enforce our immigration laws,\u201d Mr. King said.<\/p>\n
Analysts said it was bizarre that one federal law enforcement agency wouldn\u2019t communicate with another.<\/p>\n
While Mr. King\u2019s bill deals specifically with changing the policy at the Capitol Police, the problem extends to other federal law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n
In particular the U.S. Park Police, which patrol large swaths of the Washington metropolitan region, has also followed a sanctuary policy.<\/p>\n
That means illegal immigrants protesting at the White House \u2014 including some who chained themselves to the White House fence in a demonstration several years ago \u2014 were not turned over to immigration authorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not concerned with their immigration status,\u201d a Park Police officer told The Washington Times at the time of the demonstrations.<\/p>\n
They were processed, fined and released, the officer said.<\/p>\n