As part of his immigration plan, President Trump pledged during his campaign to block federal funding to sanctuary cities within the first one hundred days of his administration. “Block funding for sanctuary cities. We block the funding. No more funding. Cities that refuse to cooperate with federal authorities will not receive taxpayer dollars,” Trump said last August. States could lose funding as well as counties and cities. Some could face huge penalties for noncompliance. New York City stands to lose $1.8 billion in federal dollars.
I sincerely hope he keeps this pledge.
Sanctuary cities, if you don’t know, have laws or unwritten policies in place to limit how much local law enforcement cooperates with federal immigration officials when dealing with illegal immigrants. Illegals who have been arrested for crimes in sanctuary cities are typically allowed to serve their city jail time and are then released instead of being turned over to the feds for deportation. Some cities will turn over illegals who commit serious felonies but shield all others.
The liberals harboring these criminals are doing so at the expense of their citizens. Not only does the crime committed by illegals cost the citizens money but, in some cases, ends up costing lives. How many times have we read in the last few years of illegal immigrants who raped or murdered someone after being released following multiple arrests for other crimes? Illegal immigrants become criminals the moment they cross our border. That they’re allowed by liberals to roam our streets with impunity says volumes about liberals and their respect for our laws.
Liberals have coddled illegals so much that it’s become expected by the illegals that they’ll be left alone. One of them has actually sued a city for turning him over to immigration authorities.
Yahoo News – An undocumented immigrant from El Salvador is suing San Francisco alleging police violated the city’s sanctuary city policy by turning him over to U.S. immigration authorities after he reported his car stolen.
The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday on behalf of Pedro Figueroa Zarceno, 32, in federal court in San Francisco against the city and its police chief for violating his right to due process and breaking an ordinance barring municipal employees from cooperating with federal immigration authorities seeking to deport a person.
Figueroa walked into a police station in November 2015 to report his car stolen, according to the lawsuit. Two days later, the car was found and when he went to recover it, he was handcuffed and led outside where federal immigration agents were waiting for him, the lawsuit said.
The civil action comes as San Francisco and dozens of other U.S. cities face pressure from President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on Friday, to abandon their policies of limiting cooperation between law enforcement officers and U.S. immigration authorities.
“We’ll obviously have to review the lawsuit before we can comment on it,” John Cote, a spokesman for the San Francisco city attorney, said by phone. “That being said, San Francisco has strong policies in place to encourage victims and witnesses to report crimes without fear of being deported.”
The incident occurred about five months after an undocumented immigrant was charged with murder in the shooting of a woman at a San Francisco pier.
Governor Greg Abbott of Texas has reacted strongly to local officials who have policies supporting sanctuary for illegals. His response is an example for other governors and for President Trump to follow.
The Texas Tribune – Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is formally demanding that Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez reverse her new policy on cooperation with federal immigration authorities or lose state dollars, further escalating a showdown over “sanctuary cities” that have been in the crosshairs of Republican officials.
“This is not a pronouncement of sound public policy; it is a dangerous game of political Russian roulette — with the lives of Texans at stake,” Abbott wrote to Hernandez — whose jurisdiction includes Austin — in a letter dated Monday.
The newly elected sheriff, who campaigned on the issue, announced Friday that her department would reduce its cooperation with federal immigration authorities when they request an inmate be flagged for possible deportation. Her office said it would continue to hold people charged with very serious crimes, such as capital murder.
But that was not enough for Abbott, whose letter calls the policy, which is set to go into effect Feb. 1, “shortsighted” and backed by “frivolous” justifications. He quickly reacted Friday on Twitter, saying that his office “will cut funding for Travis County adopting sanctuary. Stiffer penalties coming.”
Abbott’s threat targets Criminal Justice Division grant money that is administered by his office. Travis County got almost $1.8 million from the division over the past year “based upon the commitment that federal immigration law would be enforced,” according to the letter.
“Your policy is in violation of that commitment,” Abbott told Hernandez. “Unless you reverse your policy prior to its effective date, your unilateral decision will cost the people of Travis County money that was meant to be used to protect them.”
In the letter, Abbott also made clear that he intends to make an example out of Hernandez during the 85th Legislative Session that started earlier this month. Abbott is set to lay out his priorities in his State of the State address, which is scheduled for Jan. 31.
“During the pending legislative session, I will be working with the Texas Legislature to do more to protect our citizens from misguided and dangerous sanctuary policies like yours,” Abbott told Hernandez. “Your reckless actions endangering the safety of Texans will provide powerful testimony for the need to strengthen Texas law.”
Sheriffs have to take an oath to defend the Constitution, the state and enforce the laws. Why is this woman not being removed from office?
It might be surprising to some just how much crime is committed by illegals. In Fiscal Year 2015, convictions for federal crimes committed by illegals included:
- 1,640 of 2,181 total convictions (75 percent) in which the primary charge was simple drug possession.
- 13 of 43 convictions (30 percent) for kidnapping/hostage-taking.
- 21 of 100 convictions (21 percent) for “national defense” crimes, which include convictions for exporting arms, munitions or military equipment without a license or providing material support to designated foreign terrorist organizations or for terrorist purposes, per a 2013 commission report.
- 3,555 of 19,989 convictions (18 percent) for drug trafficking.
- 69 of 665 convictions (10 percent of them, for money laundering.
- 5 of 91 convictions, or 5.5 percent, for murder.
This is just convictions for federal crimes and not the actual number of crimes committed on the federal, state, county and city levels. How much crime would it take for people like Sheriff Hernandez to finally see that allowing illegals to stay is a huge mistake?
Have you ever heard the expression, ‘intent follows the bullet?’ The legal expression is ‘transferred intent,’ which means, for example, if someone tries to kill Fred but kills Bob instead, the intent is transferred and the killer is held by the law to have had criminal intent to kill Bob.
As far as I’m concerned, every official with a sanctuary policy may not be legally guilty of a crime, but they are responsible for every crime committed by illegals who could have been
deported, were it not for their reprehensible policies. Intent follows the illegal immigrant. Officials who allow the illegals to stay are morally culpable for every crime they commit. Al
the property crimes, car crashes while driving under the influence, rapes, assaults, robberies, murders and other crimes can be laid squarely at the feet of the liberals who allow the illegals to stay in our country.
I’ll be watching closely to see if President Trump will follow the example set by Governor Abbott and do something about it.
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