CNSNews.com — Windsor, California Police Chief Carlos G. Basurto issued a letter in Spanish to illegal aliens in his town, assuring them that they are safe from deportation because his department “will not engage in federal immigration enforcement activities,” and that their immigration status is “completely irrelevant,” Judicial Watch reported on Thursday, March 2.
“If you are an undocumented immigrant in the Town of Windsor, you do not need to fear the officers of the Windsor Police Department,” Chief Basurto wrote, “nor assume that they have any reason to bother you, detain you or arrest you for simply being undocumented. Your immigration status is completely irrelevant to us.”
The chief even vowed to protect illegal immigrants with minor criminal records, revealing that he will only allow his department to collaborate with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to apprehend “serious or violent criminals” on the condition that ICE does not arrest individuals based on immigration status or low-level criminal offenses.
While conceding that some illegal aliens are “committed to violence, drugs, and domestic terrorism,” Basurto defended the practice of illegal immigration, saying that “most, if not all of these people emigrated here from other countries … in hopes of making a better life for themselves and their families.”
The chief himself worked in the prune fields of California when he was young, as his grandparents — who illegally emigrated from Mexico — did before him,” reported Judicial Watch.
“I can relate to these people,” he wrote, “because like many of us in this town, we are these people.”
“I am committed to provide them and all other segments of our community,” wrote Basurto, “with a safe and healthy community for all to enjoy and prosper and to have a feeling of equality.”
Windsor officials, fearful of consequences under the Trump administration, plan to keep the town’s sanctuary policies “under the radar,” according to a report in a local Spanish-language newspaper La Prensa Sonoma.
The Town of Windsor will “adopt a resolution that omits the word sanctuary,” declaring instead that the town is a “united community that values diversity and the contributions of all residents,” stated the newspaper.
