The Obama Regime did not start the policy of sanctuary for law breakers, it started long ago, nor did it start the policy of protecting illegal aliens from arrest. The policy started under the first Bush Administration where the City of San Jose became a de facto sanctuary from arrest, from the legacy Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) all due to a particularly aggressive Special Agent in the Service who was well known for tracking down illegal aliens to their homes and arresting them there.

The policy slowly expanded, first to houses of worship, then to primary and secondary schools, and eventually under Clinton to post-secondary schools as well.

By that time illegal aliens knew the drill and could live their lives openly for the first time.

Also taking advantage of the mosque and post-secondary school sanctuary were the 9/11 hijackers who stayed at various mosques in the United States, such as the Dar Al-Hijrah in Virginia and the Islamic Center of San Diego.

The 9/11 hijackers also used the sanctuary of post-secondary institutions as well, doing their training at various flight schools with and without proper documentation. The Clinton policy was not to investigate or arrest illegal aliens at such institutions and that continued under the Bush Administration, one reason that even though the FBI was looking for Saudi terrorists, they and the INS avoided pressing flight schools for information or arresting other illegals to flush out the terrorists or develop leads on the few then known soon to be hijackers.

Also of note, the 9/11 hijackers had problems with the police in the United States, such Nawaf Alhazmi, as well as Mohammed Atta, who had numerous citations and an arrest warrant issued for him.

Just imagine if those encounters with the police resulted in arrest and deportation as both were violating the status of their admission to the United States, e.g. they were illegal aliens who violated the conditions that governed the time and activity of their student visas.

But in the news, if tomorrow's terrorist is arrested, the Obama Regime will be doing nothing to investigate and arrest that illegal alien as now a courthouse—where a terrorist or an illegal alien will be taking care of a warrant issued for a traffic offense or paying a fine on an infraction or misdemeanor, or even appearing for a trial—is a place of sanctuary.

Los Angeles Times March 31, 2014 by Scott Martelle

ICE Changes Guidelines For Agents At Courthouses But Won't Say How

Sometime over the past couple of weeks, officials for the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement division revised guidelines for how agents are to conduct themselves in and around courthouses.

The change came on the heels of complaints by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center and immigrant rights groups that agents were targeting undocumented immigrants as they tended to unrelated court business. Unfortunately, ICE says that “due to law enforcement sensitivities, the specific details of that guidance are not being released.”

Here’s the full statement:

“As is true of all law enforcement components, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) division routinely evaluates its operational procedures to ensure its resources are being used effectively and efficiently. To that end, ICE ERO recently provided its field personnel with updated guidance related to enforcement actions at or in close proximity to courthouses.

However, due to law enforcement sensitivities, the specific details of that guidance are not being released.”

An ICE official added on background that “while ERO has issued updated guidance to its field personnel regarding the execution of law enforcement actions at or near courthouses, ICE has not amended its sensitive locations memorandum, which applies to all of the agency’s enforcement components.” Those “sensitive locations” are schools, churches and the sites of weddings and funerals—all places at which agents have been told not to approach suspected undocumented immigrants.

This blogger has it on good authority that courthouses have been added to the memorandum in question but in a roundabout manner typical of the Regime. It is not as explicit as for places of worship or schools, but the strict conditions have made courthouses another place of sanctuary.

So it is, the groups complaining will not be satisfied until all deportations have ended and this is just another manifestation of the end of immigration law enforcement in the United States. Sanctuaries may be as large as a city, as small as a courthouse, but courthouses are important for immigration law enforcement as a courthouse is where terrorists and illegal aliens gather to pay fines, get divorced, or sue an employer. Soon the policy will be explicit, as that is part of the Kabuki theater of the Regime's policy development. First orchestrate a campaign over an issue in the press, then implement that policy when there is no push back from John Boehner.