Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who is fond of performatively demanding that sworn federal agents enforcing duly enacted national immigration laws should “get the f*** out” of his city, while issuing no such directives to criminal illegal immigrants, appeared on Fox & Friends this month and made an interesting assertion.

When confronted with an example of how “sanctuary” policies contributed to the needless death of one of his constituents, at the hands of an illegal immigrant drunk driver, Frey suggested that his administration isn’t opposed to cooperating with the feds under certain circumstances. “We are willing to work with people when it’s about murder and when it’s about crime. But the truth is that this ain’t about that,” he claimed. Oh, really? The Department of Homeland Security has released a growing roster of the hardened, violent criminals, including convicted murderers, rapists, and gang members, who have been picked up off the street by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers during the current Minnesota surge. It is very much about crime.

Sanctuary policies, such as those instituted in greater Minneapolis, expressly prohibit local or state authorities from collaborating with federal immigration enforcement, which often takes the form of ignoring or rejecting so-called ICE detainer requests. In a sane world, this would be a proactive two-way street. Whenever an illegal immigrant is arrested or is about to be released from jail or prison, community-based police would give a heads-up to ICE, whose officers would execute an orderly transfer of custody in a controlled environment. And when ICE lodges detainer requests from its side, those would be honored as a matter of course. If the arrestees or detainees in question have criminal convictions or final deportation orders against them, they are promptly deported. If a bit more due process is required in other cases, so be it.

This would be a rational and sensible way for the system to work — and in many parts of the country, it’s exactly how the system does work. Law enforcement agencies help each other out, federal authority is respected, and public safety threats are neutralized. But in left-wing “sanctuary” jurisdictions, mandated noncooperation leads to dangerous criminals with no legal right to remain in the United States being spit back out onto the streets to walk free. This happens routinely and constantly. ICE is targeting its street operations in these blue cities and states as a direct result of this phenomenon. Politicians refuse to assist in going about things the........

© Washington Examiner