Subcommittee hears testimony pressing for stricter interior enforcement and limits on sanctuary jurisdictions

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement heard testimony focused on interior immigration enforcement, sanctuary jurisdictions and how local policies affect public safety.

Witness John Fabricatori, a former ICE official and visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told the panel that sanctuary policies “shelter criminal aliens” and cited cases he said showed violent offenders released from custody without ICE notification. Fabricatori urged Congress to “reinstate ICE detainers and ensure dangerous individuals are detained and deported” and proposed restoring full cooperation between ICE and local law enforcement.

Republican members framed sanctuary jurisdictions as public‑safety threats. They repeatedly pointed to local prosecutorial and detention practices they say hamper federal removal efforts and cited ICE data claims presented in testimony—Fabricatori referenced a non‑detained docket he said contains millions of immigration cases with many individuals subject to final orders of removal.

Democratic members and other witnesses acknowledged that the asylum system has been overwhelmed at times but warned that blanket approaches to interior enforcement or mass deportations risk harming families and local public safety. Representative Zoe Lofgren noted statutory limits on detention capacity and said Congress needed to address asylum law provisions and detention funding together. David Beyer and other witnesses cautioned that prioritization frameworks are common and that enforcement resources should be targeted at violent offenders and public‑safety threats.

Members discussed practical cooperation steps. Multiple witnesses endorsed expanding state and local partnerships with federal authorities and improving information‑sharing while some members urged economic and humanitarian implications be considered before major enforcement escalations. No legislative action was taken; members asked DHS and witness groups for operational proposals to increase detention capacity and streamline ICE‑local cooperation.