Criminal immigrants should go back to their home countries willingly rather than waiting to be arrested, former Pinal County, Arizona, Sheriff Mark Lamb told Newsmax on Sunday.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has said he'll sign an executive order allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement to house immigrants at the city's notorious Rikers Island but Lamb told Newsmax's "Sunday Agenda" that Rikers could be the easiest place the criminal immigrants could land.
Other detained prisoners could be sent to prison in El Salvador or to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Lamb said, "They don't want to go to any one of those."
"Gitmo is the ideal place for these criminals," Lamb said. "We can't keep having them come back. Send them to Gitmo. They're not getting off that island."
And if the prisoners are sent to the maximum security prison in El Salvador, "Oh boy," said Lamb. "That's the worst of all of them."
Rather than risk any of the lockups, Lamb said he would advise the immigrants to self-deport before they are arrested.
"If they were smart, they would go back to the countries they came from and try to come in [legally]," he said. "All of us in America are all for the legal immigration process … what is not, according to justice, is when you come into this country illegally, especially if you're a criminal."
Lamb also commented on the clash between border czar Tom Homan and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., after he accused the congresswoman of "impeding" federal immigration officials' efforts to arrest illegal migrants by offering them advice on avoiding deportation.
Lamb pointed out that federal law prohibits anyone from concealing, harboring, or shielding someone they know to be in the United States illegally.
"You could potentially face federal charges. And I think we have the attorney general that will actually do it," said Lamb. "She no longer has the protection of [former President Joe] Biden and [former Attorney General] Merrick Garland and that corrupt justice system of the previous administration."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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