The United States is supposed to be a “nation of laws” but widespread sanctuary jurisdictions show that idea to be a lie.
California is arguably the [...]]]>
The United States is supposed to be a “nation of laws” but widespread sanctuary jurisdictions show that idea to be a lie.
California is arguably the worst, as a sanctuary state that has had many crimes committed by illegal aliens against US citizens — deaths like three members of the Bologna family, 32-year-old Kate Steinle, Officer Ronil Singh, and Sacramento County Deputy Danny Oliver and Placer County Detective Michael David Davis Jr., among many others. With so many preventable deaths, you might think that California would pay more attention to public safety, but Sacramento prefers diverse criminals to law-abiding citizens.
See ICE’s web page showing the dangerous men released onto American streets by irresponsible local governments — below is a sampling:
Fox News reporter Griff Jenkins recently investigated the difficulty ICE agents face in Los Angeles, where the deck is strongly stacked against law enforcement in a sanctuary county in a sanctuary state. Officers are forced by the policy to search for criminals rather than simply pick them up at jails just prior to their release.
]]>Griff Jenkins hits streets of sanctuary city with ICE agents, Fox News, September 26, 2019
Fox News correspondent Griff Jenkins followed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Los Angeles, a sanctuary city, as they pursued criminal aliens and detailed the difficulties of making such apprehensions.
“If you had a criminal warrant from a judge on a specific person, you could go forcibly in, but ICE cannot. They’re abiding by the law,” Jenkins explained Thursday on “Fox & Friends.”
At one stop, ICE agents could see the suspect inside, but could not forcibly enter, having to wait for the owner of the property to allow them inside.
“[It] speaks to the difficulty that ICE has in trying to make these apprehensions,” Jenkins said.
An ICE agent told Jenkins that the criminal alien had been convicted of multiple crimes and had a detainer placed on him on August 9, though it was not honored by local law enforcement and he was released.
“It’s been extremely disappointing to us in federal law enforcement,” the ICE agent said. (Continues)
County Executive Marc Elrich has set the tone for an extreme sanctuary policy, wrongly stating that “County police and our Correction and Rehabilitation [...]]]>
County Executive Marc Elrich has set the tone for an extreme sanctuary policy, wrongly stating that “County police and our Correction and Rehabilitation departments are not authorized to detain someone based on an ICE detainer.” As a result, dangerous foreigners have been released onto local streets rather than deported, and they have committed violent crimes with rape being a favorite.
For more details, see my earlier report, Maryland Sanctuary County Becomes a Crime Zone.
At that time, September 4, all the perps were hispanic, as seen in the mugshots below:
Now Montgomery County criminals have become more diverse with the addition of a Nigerian:
As it happens, concerned citizens plan an community rally on Friday, September 13 in Rockville Maryland to protest the lawlessness. Michelle Malkin and Larry O’Connor are scheduled to appear.
Here’s Tucker with a sanctuary crime update:
]]>TUCKER CARLSON: Illegal immigration in the Montgomery County, Maryland, continues unabated. In fact, authorities there are helping it, but the toll is rising dramatically. Oluwakayode Adebusuyi is an illegal immigrant from Nigeria. According to county authorities, Adebusuyi recently raped an intoxicated woman inside her car. That would make him the eighth illegal alien charged with a sex offense in Montgomery County in the last six weeks, since July 25th.
Amazingly, this man now charged with a sex crime has stayed in the United States, despite past very serious run-ins with the law — not minor stuff, major stuff. For example, in August 2018, this man was charged with second degree assault, false imprisonment and a fourth-degree sex offense.
But somehow prosecutors dropped those charges. He was not deported. He stayed in America despite being here illegally. And these new charges are the results of that. Ken Cuccinelli is acting Director of U.S. Customs and Immigration Services, and he joins us tonight. Mr. Cuccinelli, thanks very much for joining us.
KEN CUCCINELLI: Good to be with you, Tucker.
CARLSON: So we’ve been following horrified as the toll of sex offenses in Montgomery County, Maryland, has risen by illegal aliens. Clearly, the county officials there are doing nothing about it. They’re blaming neo-Nazis for complaining about it, et cetera. I mean, they’re completely unwilling to protect their own citizens. Can the federal government do anything to protect them?
CUCCINELLI: Well, of course, ICE even though Montgomery County won’t fully cooperate with ICE, ICE still does its job of removals when criminals come to their attention. You noted this most recent illegal who was charged with sexual assault rape, most recently had previously been identified to law enforcement, well, they didn’t let ICE know last summer when they had this person in their custody. And they undoubtedly knew he was illegal, and yet did not notify federal officials.
And so when they don’t know that a criminal is present, ICE doesn’t know to even try to pick them up. So and of course, sadly, enough, Montgomery County is not alone in this, their neighbor, PG County here bordering Washington, D.C. and we’ve all been reading it in the last few days about North Carolina and the victims down there are almost 500 of these folks released without giving ICE notice. And these are people that no American would want to keep in this country.
And oddly enough, it is many of these folks on the left who say, “Oh, we want to get rid of the criminal aliens,” but they’re the very same ones who enact these sanctuary policies that in fact harbor these exact illegals who are committing other crimes in the communities in this country.
CARLSON: What a tragedy this is.
CUCCINELLI: It is a tragedy.
CARLSON: Again, is there anything that the feds can do? I mean Montgomery County, Maryland, all of these jurisdictions are in defiance, it seems to me, of federal law. Is there anything that can be done about it?
CUCCINELLI: Well, they’re certainly not cooperating with federal law, and I can tell you, as a former attorney general, that it is a long, really nonpartisan history of law enforcement of cooperating across levels — federal, state and local law enforcement. This is a very recent phenomena, Tucker, where people see political advantage to playing games with law enforcement and public safety on the left, and it is having tragic, tragic consequences for these communities.
CARLSON: Yes. It’s certainly is. Director Cuccinelli, thanks so much for joining us tonight. I appreciate it.
A frequent touch in sob stories is the excessive use of emotive adjectives and [...]]]>
A frequent touch in sob stories is the excessive use of emotive adjectives and descriptive images to portray the increasing presence of foreign aliens as acceptable, seen here in phrases like “vibrant immigrant community.”
Another distraction from facts is the complaint about the president who characterizes “undocumented immigrants in particular as killers, rapists, drug smugglers and job stealers.”
That approach was bad timing on the day when illegal alien Wilbur Ernesti Martinez-Guzman was arrested in Nevada for the murder of four Americans. That case illustrates that the body count of preventable illegal alien murders continues to mount because the Congress refuses to enact basic public safety on the border.
Below, the Chron pictured an illegal alien described as a “grape picker” preparing Mexican food in her Lodi home to feed her three anchor kids.
It’s rather unlikely that the taxes (assuming any) from the “grape picker asylum seeker” cover the education and other services that California taxpayers fund for her three anchor offspring — say $11,495 per-pupil in 2016 just for schooling x 3 = $34,485 annually. And why would California take seriously her asylum claim from Mexico when so many Central Americans resettle there because it is safer than their homelands?
In a non-sanctuary state, Floricel Ramos would have already been deported.
Notice how President Trump is presented throughout the article as the problem, not the lawbreaking presence of the Mexican grape picker and others of her ilk.
]]>Amid push for border wall, many Latinos distressed by Trump’s tone, by Tatiana Sanchez, San Francisco Chronicle, January 20, 2019
As a soft rain fell in the Mission District on a recent morning, marking the start of another workday, dozens of the district’s Latino residents shuttled to bus stops while business owners opened up shop, carefully setting up jewelry displays, carting out fresh batches of sweet bread and unpacking fruit along the sidewalk. Mothers carried bundled-up toddlers. Friends met for coffee, speaking freely in Spanish.
This is the vibrant immigrant community that Carmen Sanchez wants President Trump to see. These are the people she wants highlighted in his prime-time speeches, spontaneous tweets and trips to the border.
But since his 2016 election, Trump has often painted a much darker picture of people crossing the border into the United States, characterizing undocumented immigrants in particular as killers, rapists, drug smugglers and job stealers. Trump — who proposed Saturday to extend protections for immigrants who arrived as children or were displaced by disasters in their home countries, in exchange for funding for a border wall — has leaned on that profile heavily in his push for the barrier, saying Saturday, “The lack of border control provides a gateway — a very wide and open gateway — for criminals and gang members to enter the United States.”
But his strategy has come at a cost, immigrants and advocates say. They say the heightened rhetoric has translated into hostility and violence directed at immigrants — whether or not they entered the country illegally — and Latinos in particular. The effects have been profound in diverse regions like the Bay Area, where there are an estimated 1.7 million Latinos, according to census data.
“If the president of the United States is speaking this way of Latinos, then of course some people are going to look at us like garbage, as if we bring in drugs, live off welfare and come here to do bad things,” said Sanchez, 58, a retired waitress who immigrated to the U.S. from Nicaragua in 1981. “That’s not the case. In the barrio of the Mission there are lots of people who came here to work and who own their own businesses.”
Floricel Ramos, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who has been in the United States for two decades and worked the fields in Lodi (San Joaquin County) picking grapes, said she is apprehensive about leaving her home at times.
“We come here to work and to give a better future to our kids. We want to live in peace,” said Ramos, 39, who has three U.S.-born children. “It’s frustrating that people like the president criminalize us for being here.” (Continues)
Below, Mexican illegal Cristhian Rivera [...]]]>
Below, Mexican illegal Cristhian Rivera is under arrest for the murder of college student Mollie Tibbetts.
I’ve been followed while on foot by strange men in cars, and it is unnerving — they can run you down if they want.
Every crime committed by an illegal alien is a preventable one; the fact that so many Americans have been killed by foreigners who shouldn’t be here shows how little elites and the political class care about public safety. Now Mollie’s family must join a tragic group of parents and relatives who have lost loved ones to illegal alien crime — like the parents who spoke at Donald Trump’s nominating convention.
Agnes Gibboney, who lost her son to illegal alien crime, said Mollie’s murder by an illegal alien was “unacceptable.”
“This is an outrage, a preventable crime that should’ve never happened.”
Agnes Gibboney, whose son was killed by an illegal immigrant, comments on the death of Mollie Tibbetts. @foxnewsnight https://t.co/Oz0U9BxZiB pic.twitter.com/aUI23HLmEO
— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 22, 2018
It looks like local police did good investigative work to find the killer. Unfortunately, Iowa does not have the death penalty. Killer Cristhian Rivera claims he “blacked out” at the moment of the actual murder, so the insanity defense is likely. He will probably be portrayed as the victim, as happened to a degree with the killer of Kate Steinle.
Another important question is the employment of Rivera — which curiously is unspecified now — where was he working? If America had universal E-verify to weed out illegal alien workers, their numbers would drop like a rock, since American jobs are the only reason the invaders are here.
]]>Illegal immigrant charged with Mollie Tibbetts’ murder, New York Post, August 21, 2018
An “illegal alien” is in custody for the murder of Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts, according to police officials.
Cristhian Rivera, 24, was charged Tuesday in Poweshiek County after being brought in without incident by local cops.
Investigators spoke to him at length about what happened on July 18 — when he allegedly abducted Tibbetts — and revealed what he said during an afternoon press conference.
According to officials, Rivera told cops that he saw the young woman running, circled around a few times in his car, and eventually approached her.
He got out an ran up behind Tibbetts and accidentally spooked her — causing the 20-year-old to panic, officials said.
Rivera told cops that he then blacked out, and didn’t come to again until after Tibbetts was already dead — at the intersection in rural Poweshiek County where investigators found her body.
Cops would not say when the young college student was left there.
Rick Rahn, special agent in charge at the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, told reporters that federal officials were able to confirm Rivera’s status as an illegal immigrant after he was brought into custody on Monday.
“He’s an illegal alien, been in this area for four to seven years,” Rahn said.
Investigators were able to link Rivera to the missing person case after catching his black Chevy Malibu on surveillance camera the day Tibbetts disappeared. He was allegedly tailing her as she ran.
“He followed her around,” Rahn said. “Circled around a couple times, located her, then began to interface with her.” (Continues)
Although Oakland is often thought of as a black city, 25 percent of residents are hispanic according to the 2010 Census, putting them within three points of black Oaklanders at 28 percent. So Schaaf may be pandering to one part of her diverse base but not another: black Americans do not favor the mass immigration as recent polling has indicated. The mayor may have done herself some damage in that quarter.
From a public safety viewpoint, Schaaf stepped in it big time. Her top priority is supposed to be keeping Oakland safe, but she is clearly interested in the well being of only one group — the illegal aliens. The real danger of unlawful foreigner crime was discussed on Monday by Don Rosenberg whose son was killed by an illegal alien:
Below, Don Rosenberg holds a photo of his late son Drew, who was killed by an illegal alien.
Here’s the LA Times article:
]]>Oakland mayor faces backlash after notifying residents of possible immigration enforcement, Los Angeles Times, February 26, 2018
On Saturday night, residents of Oakland received an urgent message from Mayor Libby Schaaf.
Schaaf said she had heard from multiple sources that immigration agents would be conducting enforcement operations “starting as soon as within the next 24 hours” and urged those here illegally to take precautions.
The message stunned many. On Monday, some of that surprise turned to confusion and anger as large-scale immigration sweeps did not materialize.
Schaaf’s action has sparked debate about what role politicians and city governments should play in spreading information — both confirmed and unconfirmed — about possible federal immigration sweeps.
Like many California cities, Oakland has declared itself a sanctuary for those here illegally, and officials there have vowed to fight President Trump’s promised immigration crackdown. Tensions have heightened in recent weeks as administration officials have talked about targeting California for increased immigration enforcement. Trump last week also said he was thinking of withdrawing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from the state, predicting it could cause a wave of crime.
While Schaaf said she was trying to help those who might be arrested, some advocates said it had a different impact.
“The main reaction that people have had has been fear, unfortunately,” said Eleni Wolfe, immigration program director at Centro Legal de la Raza, an Oakland-based advocacy group. “It’s terrifying to hear about the potential of increased enforcement action, and unfortunately that’s the main message that they heard.”
Across California, leaders said they find themselves in a difficult position as they fight federal law enforcement actions. Typically, they said, local and federal officials work in concert. But on immigration, they are at odds.
“Broad pronouncements about raids in a city and across a region generate an enormous amount of fear and…generally don’t help families understand exactly what they need to do to protect themselves and their loves ones,” San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said.
On the other hand, the former prosecutor said, providing specific information about how, when and where ICE might be engaged could lead to charges of obstruction of justice.
[ . . . ]
Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates for stricter immigration enforcement, echoed that statement, saying it was the policies of sanctuary cities that are “creating the need for ICE to go into these communities.”
Schaaf’s statement, he said, was “a deliberate move to create a sense of hysteria,” he said.
(Continues)
On Tuesday, the paper used its front page to inform readers that the drunk driver was a twice-deported [...]]]>
On Tuesday, the paper used its front page to inform readers that the drunk driver was a twice-deported illegal alien from Guatemala, Manuel Orrego-Savala.
Of course there are thousands of ordinary Americans who have been killed, robbed, raped, kidnapped, stolen from and otherwise harmed by illegal aliens with much less attention. Friends of public safety were therefore grateful for the spotlight on these crime victims by candidate Trump during his campaign and also during his State of the Union speech.
In the current case, the Guatemalan now under arrest for the double death was deported twice, yet he returned again. According to the law, illegal re-entry is a felony, but that crime rarely receives the maximum punishment, namely prison. Candidate Trump promised to propose legislation establishing mandatory, minimum federal prison sentences for people who illegally re-enter the country which would certainly chill that crime.
It is tragic to see another young person die at the hands of a drunk-driving illegal alien, but hopefully there will be more attention paid to this continuing and preventable problem.
Suspect in Colts’ Edwin Jackson, Uber driver deaths previously convicted for drunk driving in California, Indianapolis Star, February 5, 2018
The man suspected of driving drunk and fatally striking an Indianapolis Colts player and his Uber driver early Sunday had twice been deported and was in the country illegally, police confirmed Monday.
Police say Manuel Orrego-Savala, 37, had a blood-alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit when he hit and killed Edwin Jackson, a 26-year-old Colts linebacker, and 54-year-old Jeffrey Monroe, Jackson’s Uber driver, around 4 a.m. Sunday.
Orrego-Savala is from Guatemala, according to Indiana State Police. He was first deported in 2007 and again in 2009 following arrests in San Francisco, according to a spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE officials say Orrego-Savala has a prior conviction in California for driving under the influence.
The circumstances of his Sunday arrest emerged as the latest case to draw in politicians and activists, particularly as President Donald Trump and Congress debate immigration changes as another budget deadline looms this week.
(Continues)
The video report below provides a good description of the crime:
]]>Below, Don holds a picture of his late son, who was only 25 when he was killed by an illegal alien.
So it’s not surprising that Rosenberg was infuriated by California Governor Jerry Brown’s signing of a bill declaring the entire state to be a sanctuary zone, at least partly to insult President Trump’s tough immigration enforcement.
Rosenberg appeared on Fox News on Wednesday to discuss the unlawful sanctuary state designation and how he intends to fight it, namely with an initiative to be put before California voters.
Sanctuary is a policy against public safety which is supposed to be government’s top job — although Democrats don’t value it. To that point, Rosenberg observed, “In 2016, there were over 52,000 illegal aliens in prison, and collectively they committed about 400,000 crimes, not all in 2016, That’s a major, major problem, and they need to do something about it.”
You can check out Rosenberg’s initiative at FightSanctuaryState.com, although a citizen shouldn’t have to go to such lengths to make a state obey federal law — that’s Washington’s job. Where is Attorney General Jeff Sessions on this? The Sanctuary State bill was signed into law October 5, so it’s not like the AG hasn’t had time to prepare — where’s the pushback??
We need serious federal law enforcement in California where public safety has been greatly reduced because of illegals allowed to run wild and the crime magnet that sanctuary creates.
]]>The scene looked pretty rowdy, verging on unsafe, as a large crowd of angry illegal aliens loudly demanded citizenship privileges to which they have no right.
[...]]]>The scene looked pretty rowdy, verging on unsafe, as a large crowd of angry illegal aliens loudly demanded citizenship privileges to which they have no right.
Who’s in charge of public safety in the Senate office building? After the attempted mass murder where Rep. Steve Scalise was nearly killed last summer after being shot during a baseball practice with several other Republicans and Senator Rand Paul had six ribs cracked by a neighbor a few days back, it seems like the safety of elected officials should get more consideration.
Tucker Carlson found the lack of law enforcement to be disappointing:
“A literal horde of illegal immigrants stormed Capitol Hill today — hundreds of illegal immigrants and their supporters assembled in the Hart Senate Office Building very close to right here, chanting slogans in an effort to pressure Congress to disallow the deportation of people here illegally.
Now protesting inside the Hart Building is against the law; many protestors were students cutting school, and of course an illegal immigrant participating in an illegal protest inside the US is illegal on about eight different levels. Nevertheless only 15 arrests were made, and seems unlikely anybody will be deported over this or ever for any reason because we don’t deport people in America.
Howie Carr is a Boston area radio show host, and he joins us tonight. Howie, I mean not to put too fine a point on it, but for people here illegally to show up and scream at elected American representatives about how they demand this, that or the other thing, and then no one does anything about it kind of tells you that the law is toothless now.”
Howie Carr said he didn’t get it either, and went on to cite cases of violent crime in the Boston area committed by illegal aliens, like the Cambodian who beat and robbed an elderly woman in a wheelchair.
Here’s a spare video in case of disappearance and an audio version:
Interestingly, a recent poll found support for DACA forgiveness to be dropping: less than 30 percent of Americans want to see those illegals get an amnesty.
]]>AG JEFF SESSIONS: “Jurisdictions that adopt so-called ‘sanctuary policies’ also adopt [...]]]>
AG JEFF SESSIONS: “Jurisdictions that adopt so-called ‘sanctuary policies’ also adopt the view that the protection of criminal aliens is more important than the protection of law-abiding citizens and of the rule of law,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “I commend the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office and the State of Connecticut on their commitment to complying with Section 1373, and I urge all jurisdictions found to be out of compliance in this preliminary review to reconsider their policies that undermine the safety of their residents. We urge jurisdictions to not only comply with Section 1373 but to establish sensible and effective partnerships to properly process criminal aliens.”
Below, sanctuary cities cause violence and death. San Francisco’s sanctuary policy directly led to the shooting death of Kate Steinle in 2015 at the hands of Francisco Sanchez, a five-times-deported illegal alien who chose to live in the city because he was protected there.
]]>DOJ issues ‘last chance’ warning to sanctuary cities, Fox News, October 12, 2017
EXCLUSIVE: The Justice Department on Thursday delivered a “last chance” warning to cities suspected of having “sanctuary” policies to drop their resistance to federal immigration officials.
In a notice reviewed by Fox News, the DOJ announced that five jurisdictions “have preliminarily been found to have laws, policies, or practices that may violate” a key federal statute concerning cooperation with federal immigration officials.
They are: Chicago, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia and Cook County, Ill.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a written statement that sanctuary cities “adopt the view that the protection of criminal aliens is more important than the protection of law-abiding citizens and of the rule of law.”
“I urge all jurisdictions found to be out of compliance in this preliminary review to reconsider their policies that undermine the safety of their residents,” he said.
(Continues)
It’s not like Portland is a crime-free paradise where normal policing can be [...]]]>
It’s not like Portland is a crime-free paradise where normal policing can be disregarded: Sessions noted the uptick of violence, that between 2013 and 2015, the city saw an increase in homicides of more than 140 percent.
Nevertheless, Portland instituted a criminal-protecting sanctuary policy in March.
It didn’t take long for a habitual criminal protected by the Portland’s sanctuary to engage in a horrific crime: in July Sergio Jose Martinez, who had been deported 20 times, raped a 65-year-old woman after crawling through the window of her home. Portland authorities had released him onto the streets in the previous December despite receiving a detainer from ICE.
Fox News’ Jesse Watters provided some important details:
Thirty-one-year-old Mexican national Sergio Jose Martinez has been on a path of destruction in Portland, Oregon, a notorious sanctuary city. Martinez has been arrested 13 times since 2008 in Oregon alone. His rap sheet includes car theft, hit-and-run, criminal trespassing, meth possession, reckless endangerment, burglary and shoplifting. He has criminal convictions in California too, including burglary, battery, theft and obstructing a police officer. The man is described as a transient with a daily meth habit. He has been deported — you ready? — 20 times with at least five probation violations from re-entering.
Despite a rap sheet this troubling, Martinez was still waltzing around Northeast Portland on July 24th. This is when his latest crime spree began. Here are the sickening allegations: Martinez, armed with a knife, entered a woman’s home through an open window, used scarves and socks to blindfold her, gag her and tie her up before sexually assaulting her, punching her and slamming her head into the wood floor. . .
Below, Sergio Jose Martinez, the Mexican criminal enabled by Portland’s sanctuary policy to do more violent crime.
This was some of the background to the Sessions speech, and he mentioned the Martinez case along with several others.
The attorney general starts speaking at around three minutes in the following video:
]]>Attorney General Sessions Delivers Remarks to Federal Law Enforcement Authorities About Sanctuary Cities, Portland, OR ~ Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Remarks as prepared for delivery
Thank you for that kind introduction. It is an honor to be here with you all – with the selfless and courageous men and women of law enforcement. President Trump and this Department of Justice understand your mission. He has directed us to support that mission and support you.
As a former federal prosecutor, for 14 years, I was blessed to work every day with federal, state, and local law enforcement. And there is nothing I am more proud of than what we accomplished together.
We are in the midst of a multi-front battle: an increase in violent crime, a rise in vicious gang activity, an opioid epidemic that it is taking an American life every ten minutes, and threats from terrorism—combined with a culture in which family and discipline seem to be eroding further and a disturbing disrespect for the rule of law.
After decreasing for over 20 years because of the hard but necessary work our country started in the 1980s, violent crime is back. The murder rate surged nearly 11 percent nationwide in 2015 – the largest increase since 1968. Per capita homicide rates are up in 27 of our 35 largest cities.
And Portland is not immune to these problems. Between 2013 and 2015, the city saw an increase in homicides of more than 140 percent. In 2015, Portland Police received more than 180 calls related to gangs, including shootings, stabbings, and assaults – the highest number since they began recording that number nearly 20 years ago, and almost double the count from 2014.
You know the tragic consequences of crime all too well.
You know the story of 17-year-old Jose Morales, who was shot and killed with a rifle, allegedly at the hands of local gang members in Gresham.
Or the story of the 17-year-old from Vancouver who was murdered in the middle of the day in Holladay Park. They had their whole lives ahead of them—lives that we and their loved ones will never get to see.
The fundamental duty of this government is to protect the safety and the rights of its citizens. President Trump is a law and order President.
One of his first executive orders was to back our police and another was to reduce crime in America. That is our goal. That is your goal. We must not cave to rising crime. Working together, with professionalism and dedication we can begin to turn this pernicious trend.
To get on the right track, there are a number of things we must fix. A key concern is that some jurisdictions have undertaken to undo our immigration laws through so-called “sanctuary policies.”
Such policies undermine the moral authority of law and undermine the safety of the jurisdictions that adopt them.
In Portland and all over Oregon, here’s how it works right now: once the police arrest an illegal alien and charge him with a crime, they fingerprint him and book him into their jail.
When federal immigration authorities learn that this criminal alien is in a jurisdiction’s custody, our ICE officers issue a detainer request accompanied by a civil arrest warrant and ask the city to either notify them before they release the criminal or to hold the criminal alien long enough to transfer him to federal custody in a safe setting.
But political leaders have directed state and local officers to refuse these requests. Cooperation has been a key element in informed crime fighting for decades.
The result is that police are forced to release the criminal alien back into the community without regard to the seriousness of his crimes or the length of his rap sheet. Think about that: Police may be forced to release pedophiles, rapists, murderers, drug dealers, and arsonists back into the communities where they had no right to be in the first place. They should according to law and common sense be processed and deported.
These policies hinder the work of federal law enforcement; they’re contrary to the rule of law, and they have serious consequences for the law-abiding residents of Oregon.
Just two months ago, an alleged illegal alien named Sergio Martinez was arrested in Portland.
Martinez had been deported at least 20 times, and police reports show that he was arrested at least 10 times just this year – accused of everything from possessing drugs to stealing a car.
Federal immigration authorities properly lodged a detainer against Martinez just a few months before, asking to be notified when he was set to be released. But authorities in Oregon refused.
According to the allegations, Martinez then broke into the home of a 65-year-old Portland woman by crawling through her bedroom window. Once inside, he reportedly forced her to the ground, used scarves and socks to blindfold, bind, and gag her, and then raped her and slammed her head into the wooden floor.
These policies do far greater damage than many understand. At its root, they are a rejection of our immigration laws and a declaration of open borders.
These lawless policies do more than shield individual criminal illegal aliens – they also shelter lethal gangs like the Latin Kings and MS-13.
These predators thrive when crime is not met with consequences. This state of lawlessness allows gangs to smuggle guns, drugs, and even humans across borders and around cities and communities.
That makes a sanctuary city a trafficker, smuggler, or gang member’s best friend.
I’m sure many of you are familiar with the case of Kate Steinle. She was just 32 years old when she was murdered in cold blood as she walked a pier in San Francisco with her father. Her alleged murderer is an illegal alien who had been deported five times.
In fact, he admitted that one reason he was there that day was that he knew the city had these policies in place.
And just in the last week, 23-year old Abel Esquivel, a popular community volunteer who mentored young people in his San Francisco neighborhood, was allegedly shot to death by two illegal aliens attempting to rob him after he left work.
About three weeks earlier, one of his alleged killers was arrested for an alleged battery, and, despite a detainer request from ICE, he was released. One of the other defendants in the murder case also had an ICE detainer request for him when he was arrested back in May for illegal possession of marijuana and brass knuckles. Both requests were ignored. Both walked free.
And because of these policies and in the face of all common sense, Abel was gunned down in the street by two people who never should have been there.
Sadly, after these tragic cases, the legislature in California—where these tragedies occurred—has now passed legislation to further limit law enforcement cooperation with immigration enforcement.
It is an unconscionable reaction to Mr. Esquivel’s murder to put into law the very policies that got him killed.
They will say that forcing police officers to release criminal aliens back onto the streets will somehow increase community trust. But that does not make sense to me. Would releasing someone who had been arrested 10 times this year into your community give you more confidence in law enforcement?
Would learning that your local district attorney actually charges illegal aliens with less serious crimes to evade federal deportation make you believe they are trying to make your neighborhood safer? Would forcing federal officers to track down criminal aliens on your street instead of safely in the jails make you believe we value your community?
And we all know law enforcement is not the problem.
You risk your lives each day in service of the law and the people you protect.
The problem is the policies that tie your hands. Sanctuary policies endanger us all, and especially the federal immigration officers who are forced to pursue criminal aliens outside of jails and prisons.
Yet, rather than reconsider their policies, these sanctuary jurisdictions feign outrage when they lose federal funds as a direct result of actions designed to nullify plain federal law. Some, including Portland, have even decided to sue this administration so that they can keep receiving taxpayer-funded grants while continuing to impede federal immigration enforcement.
These grants are not an entitlement. We strive to help state and local law enforcement.
But we cannot continue giving such federal grants to cities that actively undermine the safety of federal law officers and actively frustrate efforts to reduce crime in their own cities.
Our duty to protect public safety and protect taxpayer dollars and I plan to fulfill that duty.
The vast majority of Americans oppose “sanctuary” policies. According to one poll, 80 percent of Americans believe that cities should turn over criminal aliens to immigration officials. A poll taken earlier this month of swing-state voters found the same thing: 77 percent support denying federal funds to sanctuary cities.
The American people are not asking too much, and neither is the Department of Justice. Federal law enforcement wants to work with our partners at the state and local level. We want to keep our citizens safe.
And to win this multi-front war against rising crime, we need to use every lawful tool we have. And we need to eliminate all bad policies.
So I urge the city of Portland, the state of Oregon, and every “sanctuary” jurisdiction to reconsider.
And I urge Governor Brown not to sign this law that is in front of him. The bill risks the safety of good law enforcement officers and the safety of the neighborhoods that need their protection the most. There are lives and livelihoods at stake.
Together, we can make our country safer for all our residents—–native born and lawful immigrant alike.
The Department of Justice will not concede a single block or street corner in the United States to lawlessness or crime. Nor will we tolerate the loss of innocent life because a handful of jurisdictions believe they are above the law.
And I know that the Acting ICE Director, Tom Homan, will work tirelessly with his men and women to track down and find these criminal aliens—wherever they may be.
The American people rightly want a lawful immigration system that keeps us safe and serves the national interest.
U.S. Attorney Billy Williams has been eloquent about sanctuary policies: If we’re going to make this community safer, then we have to work together. Cooperation between law enforcement works. It saves lives.
And so to all the law enforcement here— – federal, state, and local— – thank you for all that you do. President Trump is grateful, I am grateful, and the entire Department of Justice is grateful for your service. We have your back and you have our thanks.
Thank you, and God bless you.