The brutal murder of Kate Steinle by a repeat drug offender, felon and five time deported illegal immigrant brought our collective attention to the issue of “sanctuary cities”.
Those who support sanctuary cities argue for the civil rights of the illegal immigrant (?) and the reliance on the voters in the immigrant community. Democrats have defeated a bill in Congress to defund sanctuary jurisdictions. President Obama threatened a veto suggesting that the whole need not be judged by the actions of a few. (Really?)
The facts, however, are on the side of the opponents of these sanctuaries. These are but a few::
- In 2014, illegal immigrants were responsible for nearly 75% of federal drug possession sentences, 20% of kidnapping and hostage taking sentences, 12% of murders and 20% of national defense related crimes. These numbers do not include state and local sentencing where rapes and murders occur.
- In one eight month period in 2014, Homeland Security reports that more than 8100 deportable aliens were released by sanctuary jurisdictions.
- Three thousand were felons and 62 percent had a prior criminal record.
- 1900 were later rearrested a total of 4300 times on 7500 different offenses including assaults, burglaries, sexual assaults, thefts and murders. (Whose civil rights are we protecting?)
Surprisingly, seven counties in Florida have been identified by the Center for Immigration Studies as sanctuary counties. Those counties identified include Pasco, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Hernando, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. More than 340 cities/counties across the United States have been identified as sanctuary jurisdictions.
According to the Center for Immigration Studies: “These state and local jurisdictions have policies, laws, executive orders or regulations allowing them to avoid cooperating with federal immigration law enforcement authorities… who under federal law have the right to administratively deport illegal aliens without seeking criminal warrants or convictions.”
Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough County sheriffs argue that they do not have the jurisdiction to hold undocumented workers (illegal immigrants) based solely on immigration status. They argue, further, that the Constitution of Florida requires probable cause to put someone in jail. (I guess being here illegally does not rise to the test for probable cause.) To complicate matters, the Supreme Court has opined that local, county and state law enforcement cannot have anything to do with immigration enforcement. (Another well thought out opinion by your Supreme Court in action.)
There are a host of questions that need to be addressed:
- Since we have a federal law defining immigration status in this country, including illegal status, how can those Federal Departments responsible for enforcing the laws, deem the laws to be recommendations only …and threaten defunding of jurisdictions who try to enforce the laws?
- What good is a President who took the oath to “…faithfully execute the laws of the land…” while commuting the sentences of more than 60,000 illegal immigrants back into the communities with the hope that these 60,000 will reappear, magically, for a scheduled deportation hearing?
- How does this differ from the Jim Crow laws that were written by states and jurisdictions in conflict with civil rights laws?
- Is it time for the States to reacquire their Constitutional sovereignty?
- Why should anyone get out of sorts over Kim Davis ignoring a federal law supporting gay marriage? (Do what I say…not what I do!)
- Why do we need ICE? (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
- Why do we need Homeland Security?
- Why do we need the Federal Government?
Since we are now a “Nation of Suggestions”, have we not become a Sanctuary Country? Is this what we want? Did some of you wear the uniform of this country for this result?
Rich Sobieray is a resident of The Villages.