There has been a huge shift in the enforcement strategy of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), or so it appears.  No money-back guarantee.  The enigma at the head of DHS, Kirstjen Nielsen, has stated that DHS and the Department of Justice are consulting, or DHS is pushing, criminal prosecution of Sanctuary City officials who violate Title 8 United States Code, Section 1324, Bringing and Harboring Certain Aliens, the Federal statute that prohibits aiding illegal aliens to remain in the United States.  With regard to The Enigma at the head of DHS, I think that she is an empty vessel, to be filled with what she is told to do, which for the moment is enough, so long as at this moment President Trump and Chief of Staff John Kelly seem to be moving against illegal aliens, at the moment.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen confirmed Tuesday that her department has asked federal prosecutors to see if they can lodge criminal charges against sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with federal deportation efforts.

“The Department of Justice is reviewing what avenues may be available,” Ms. Nielsen told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Her confirmation came after California’s new sanctuary law went into effect Jan. 1, severely restricting cooperation the state or any of its localities could offer. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan says those policies put his officers and local communities at more risk because they have to arrest illegal immigrants out in the community.

Mr. Homan told The Washington Times last July that he wanted to see local officials charged as complicit in human smuggling if they shielded illegal immigrants through sanctuary policies.

[DHS Seeking To Charge Leaders Of Sanctuary Cities, by Stephen Dinan, Washington Times, January 16, 2017]

We are familiar with Homan's enthusiasm for prosecuting local officials who aid illegal aliens, and there is a long list of obvious suspects for criminal investigations, something that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), derisively referred to by this author as ICE Special Victims Unit (ICE SVU), as ICE SVU cares little for immigration law violations, and appears to have removed the largest immigration law violation, unlawful employment, from its list of violations it investigates.  However, ICE SVU brags that it is the "critical investigative arm" of DHS and its expansive legal authority to investigate.

HSI is a critical investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security and is a vital U.S. asset in combating criminal organizations illegally exploiting America's travel, trade, financial and immigration systems...

HSI has broad legal authority to enforce a diverse array of federal statutes. It uses this authority to investigate all types of cross-border criminal activity...

[HSI Mission Statement, HSI Website, undated]

As the "critical investigative arm" of DHS, ICE SVU should be at the forefront not only arresting Sanctuary City officials, but also of illegal employers.  However ICE SVU was complete failure on its recent re-entry into the area of work-site enforcement, with a measly 21 arrests in raids of 7-11 stores throughout the United States.

More telling though about the complete incompetence of ICE SVU was the recent incident of alien smuggling, and the subsequent aiding of that smuggling attempt by the Sanctuary City of San Antonio.  Your correspondent reported that Chief Williams McManus deliberately refused to identify illegal aliens who were discovered during a failed smuggling attempt that ended in San Antonio.    It now confirmed that ICE SVU was notified of the incident, dispatched an ICE SVU agent, who did not arrest the illegal aliens!

The chief, in a written response to Express-News reporter Jason Buch, notes a couple of other items. Homeland Security Investigations was notified after the incident was reported, an agent arrived at the scene one and a half to two hours after the police arrived, the agent was at the headquarters and given access to the 12 immigrants and no one stopped him or her from taking the immigrants into custody.

Homeland Security Investigations, while pledging to continue working with local law enforcement, responds that it “did offer up its assistance and San Antonio Police Department declined to take our assistance. Instead the chief elected to take the case.”

[Chief Made Right Call On Immigrants (sic)], San Antonio Express, January 12, 2017]

For Homan and Nielsen, this is more than just an embarrassment, this is dereliction of duty by the ICE SVU Special Agent and the ICE manager responsible for his actions, Shane Folden, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the San Antonio Field Office.

Your correspondent warned that ICE SVU would be one of the components of DHS that would undermine immigration enforcement, and that warning to President Trump is again shown to be prescient.  [President Trump Will Have Foes In Immigration Bureaucracy—But Also Friends. They Can Help Him Win, by Federale, VDare, April 25, 2016]

Nielsen and Homan need to make some major changes at ICE SVU if they think that their "critical investigative arm" will be able to competently investigate a high profile criminal offense with high profile defendants who will have unlimited resources for their defense; defendants such as  Governor Jerry Brown, University of California President Janet Napolitano, Meng So, Julie Su, Sheriff Mike Reese, or Jean Shimoto.

The only thing worse than talking about arresting Sanctuary City criminals and not doing anything, is charging them, but losing the case because ICE SVU agents can't or don't know or want to do immigration law investigations.

It is revolutionary for Nielsen and Homan to be even talking about prosecuting Sanctuary City officials, but this will be a bloody and long battle, they need to be in this for the long run, but also to play hard ball, not tiddlywinks.  Besides indicting the Sanctuary City scofflaws, they need to put pressure on these Sanctuary jurisdictions, whether those jurisdictions be cities, States, or public universities.  This pressure should be widespread immigration enforcement operations, such as Homan has promised in Sanctuary Cities.  [Go Big Or Go Home—Time For ICE’s Thomas Homan To Crack Down On California, by Federale, VDare, January 5, 2018]  To counter the vast legal resources provided by the unlimited budgets of States such as California and the white-shoe big law firms that support illegal immigration, Homan needs to bring a veritable Reign of Terror, minus the guillotines and firing squads, to the illegal aliens in California.