The Immigration Shell Game

The senseless murder of a 32-year old San Francisco women has fanned a national debate over crime and illegal immigration.  Tragically, her death at the hands of an illegal immigrant could have been prevented. The city of San Francisco sheltered the alleged assailant in direct violation of federal law.

Despite these facts, the mainstream media has chosen to ignore the culpability of San Francisco's politicians.   Instead, the Obama Administration's lapdogs have trained their vitriol on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who had the gall to dredge up the issue of immigrant crime.

Whether you agree or not with Trump's remarks, the media eruption is nothing more than a shell game designed to shift the spotlight from the incendiary issue of sanctuary cities.  There are more than 200 cities in 32 states and the District of Columbia that give safe harbor to illegal immigrants.

Starting in 1998, these American cities have justified their sanctuary laws under the guise of protecting "immigrant rights."  In practice, these cities allow illegal immigrants to avoid detection and deportation. However, most have gone a step further, refusing to collaborate with the feds.

In 1996, Congress approved the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which requires local governments to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on immigration issues, including the arrest and detainment of illegals.

San Francisco, like many other sanctuary cities, has refused to hand over convicted felons who are in the country illegally as part of their broad sanctuary policy.  The alleged murderer in San Francisco had been found guilty of seven felonies and deported to Mexico five times. He was a known criminal.

After the San Francisco homicide, an ICE official confirmed that the department had "lodged an immigration decree asking to be notified" before the illegal felon was released.  The agency's request to the city was "not honored," according to ICE spokesperson Virginia Kice.

In other words, ICE demanded that the illegal immigrant be handed over to the agency for removal from the country.  The City of San Francisco denied the request.  This is not an isolated incident as the Obama Administration and the media have attempted to portray.

The immigration enforcement agency issued a report last year that cites an increase in jurisdictions failing to comply with requests to detain law breakers.  In 2014, the agency removed 86,923 convicted felons from the United States.  That number would have been higher if cities had cooperated.

The federal government's own statistics confirm that 10,516 requests to detain felons were denied just by California sanctuary cities between January 1, 2014 and June 19, 2015.  These numbers were supplied by ICE, not some anti-immigration group as Democrats often claim.

Department of Homeland Security records show than in a single eight-month period last year, these sanctuary jurisdictions released 8,100 illegal immigrants who were deportable because of their criminal records.  A total of 1,900 were later rearrested 4,300 times on 7,500 offenses.

The homicide by a deportable illegal immigrant in San Francisco is not an isolated case.  For the years 2010 through 2014, ICE figures reveal that 121 illegal immigrants held by the agency for crimes but eventually released went on to commit "homicide-related offenses."

Illegal immigrant crime is not a fiction created by Donald Trump.  It is real, but the mainstream media and Democrats, especially the Obama Administration, have a vested interest in covering up the facts because their political agenda includes blanket amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Addressing the crime issue will be difficult as long as sanctuary cities are allowed to skirt federal law and protect illegal immigrant felons from detention and deportation.

Sanctuary cities are protected by powerful, well-funded political interest organizations, including the National Council of La Raza, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the League of United Latin American Citizens.

These activist groups, supported by big corporate donors and Democrats, have bullied politicians into turning their cities into havens for illegal immigrants.  Often their efforts have been backed by misguided church groups, especially the Catholic bishops and local priests.

These ideological zealots and the cities who appease them are aiding and abetting criminals.  If they oppose the federal statute that mandates cooperation on immigration issues, then they should work to change the law.  Ordinary Americans don't get to pick and choose which laws to follow.

Insanity has replaced the rule of law on immigration.  The federal government has stood by and allowed this to happen.  The Justice Department has every legal right to shut down the sanctuary cities. But that will never happen as long as President Obama is in office.

Sanctuary cities, like San Francisco, will remain breeding grounds for illegal immigrant gangs, drug cartels and human trafficking.  Citizens are put at risk by politicians more interested in the next election than in public safety.  This is unconscionable even for a compassionate society.

How many more Americans will have to be murdered before their government enforces its own laws, requiring cities to cooperate with federal authorities?

Every candidate running for president of the United States should be required to answer that question.