The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement holds a hearing titled “Restoring Immigration Enforcement in America.”
As deportation efforts ramp up under President Donald Trump, local Republican Party members say it’s a much-needed mission after an immigrant truck driver caused traffic mayhem in South Carolina earlier this month, shutting down a highway after claiming to have a bomb in his 18-wheeler.
The GOP leaders say it’s another case of former President Joe Biden’s lax immigration system affecting hardworking citizens, adding new Trump administration deportations can’t get started fast enough.
Ahmad Jamal Khamees Alhendi, 28, was stopped by state transport police Jan. 2 around 2:45 p.m. for having a missing license plate on his tractor-trailer, according to the South Carolina Department of Public Safety (SCDPS).
The 18-wheeler was eventually cleared, and all lanes of I-85 were reopened nearly five hours later.
Alhendi was arrested and jailed, and he was issued an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer. ICE detainers are hold notices of non-citizens who could be removed from the country after being arrested for criminal activity and taken into custody.
ICE told Fox News Digital Alhendi is a Jordanian national who legally entered the United States in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Sept. 20, 2018. His address is listed as Oak Lawn, Illinois.
Alhendi has since failed to comply with the terms of his legal admittance, meaning he is now in the country illegally.
The highway shutdown, which took place near mile marker 44, led to long delays and bumper-to-bumper traffic.
President Trump is taking on defiant sanctuary cities as he seeks to fulfill a vital campaign pledge to mass deport illegal immigrants while blue city leaders dig in their heels, resisting any form of assistance to federal authorities that could lead to migrants’ removal.
Tom Homan, Trump’s designated border czar, has promised to unveil a series of “game-changing” executive orders that have prompted sanctuary cities to cement their statuses as safe havens for migrants.
The cities, from Chicago to San Diego, have doubled down by reaffirming local ordinances to prohibit local law enforcement from assisting federal authorities in immigration removal operations.
President Trump put illegal immigration front and center in his inaugural address on Monday, promising: “All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.”
Los Angeles, in November following Trump’s election win, formalized policies prohibiting city resources from being used to support federal deportation efforts and further solidifying its stance as a sanctuary city.
San Diego’s board of supervisors passed a similar policy that prohibits county agencies from working with federal immigration authorities. California’s history as a shelter for migrants was cemented in 2017 after former Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation making California a sanctuary state.
During Trump’s first term, he cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in law enforcement grants to sanctuary cities. The Biden administration restored the grants in 2021, Reuters reported.
San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond, a vocal critic of the state’s immigration policies, told Fox News Digital that he hopes to see “America return to the rule of law.”
“I will fight to secure our border and oppose any handouts or incentives that encourage illegal immigration,” he said. “We must put Americans first and uphold the integrity of our nation.”
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