BATON ROUGE, LA – Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry ono Thursday joined a coalition of 18 state attorneys general in urging President Biden, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Johnson to reverse the Biden administration's last-minute cancellation of Operation Talon – a nationwide ICE operation that focuses on deporting illegal immigrants convicted of sex crimes.
“Operation Talon, which targets convicted sex offenders who are in our country illegally, is vital to both national security and public safety in Louisiana,” Landry said. “Canceling this effort not only emboldens sexual predators and traffickers, but it also shows the world that President Biden tolerates and encourages the breaking of our laws. We cannot allow America to become a sanctuary jurisdiction for sexual predators. The Biden Administration must reverse their decision on Operation Talon immediately.”
Citing data collected by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Landry and his colleagues note that during the period from October 2014 to May 2018, ICE arrested 19,752 illegal aliens with criminal convictions for whom the most serious prior conviction was a conviction for a sex-related offense.
The attorneys general argue that the cancellation of Operation Talon creates “a perverse incentive for foreign sexual predators to seek to enter the United States illegally and assault more victims, both in the process of unlawful migration and after they arrive. It will also broadcast the message to other criminal aliens who have committed less heinous offenses that any kind of robust enforcement against them is extremely unlikely.”
The coalition included Landry and the attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and West Virginia. A copy of their letter to the Biden administration may be found here.
