Category: Sanctuary City

Los Angeles To Become ‘Sanctuary’ City

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass stands at an encampment during an Inside Safe operation on September 26, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

OAN Staff Abril Elfi
6:00 PM – Tuesday, November 19, 2024

The Los Angeles City Council has unanimously passed a “sanctuary city” ordinance in order to “protect” illegal migrants from being deported.  

On Tuesday, the council passed the ordinance on a 13-0 vote, which L.A. officials claim will codify the protection of migrants in municipal law.  

The vote follows President-elect Donald Trump’s recent vow to authorize the U.S. military or National Guard to carry out mass deportations of illegal immigrants as soon as he’s back in the White House.

Meanwhile, Councilmember Nithya Raman, who hails from India, had a few words to say in regards to Trump’s promise.

“Immigrants make up the very fabric of Los Angeles, and they deserve to feel safe and protected in the city they call home, no matter who is in power,” said Raman, whose family moved to the U.S. from India when she was six years old.

“I am who I am today because of immigrants—people like my parents, extended family, and the community who raised me,” said Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez. “The same is true for Los Angeles, a city built on the dreams and labor of generations of immigrants. We will not allow hateful rhetoric or destructive policies to tear families apart or dim the light of their contributions.” Today, we declare to the nation that Los Angeles thrives because of immigrants, and we are better because of their work and contributions.”

Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest city, is home to an estimated 951,000 illegal immigrants, according to the Migration Policy Institute. However, some have disputed this number and believe that it is much higher.

Meanwhile, Republican leaders in Los Angeles condemned Tuesday’s vote, labeling it as misguided.

“So-called ‘sanctuary’ cities and states sound warm and fuzzy, but the protections they offer aren’t for abuelas getting ice cream, they’re for people who’ve entered the country illegally and committed additional crimes,” said Roxanne Hodge, communications director for the Republican Party of Los Angeles County. “Whether drunk driving, robbery, sexual violence, assault or murder, none of those should go unpunished. Perpetrators should definitely not be protected by the largesse taken from hard-working taxpayers.”

The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education unanimously approved a “sanctuary city” resolution on Monday, coinciding with the City Council vote. The resolution directs LAUSD teachers and staff to receive training on how to respond if contacted by federal immigration officials.

On Monday, President-elect Trump recirculated a social media post implying that his administration would declare illegal immigration a national emergency while utilizing military resources to deport those who are here illegally.

While running for president, Trump promised deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century law that allows for the summary detention and removal of any foreign national over the age of 14 who comes from a country at war with the U.S.

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Boston Mayor Highlights City’s ‘Sanctuary’ Status, Says She Won’t Cooperate With Deportation Of Illegals

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu speaks at the Public Mass Meeting of the 114th National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 29, 2023. (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)

OAN Staff Brooke Mallory

5:32 PM – Monday, November 18, 2024

SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/boston-mayor-highlights-citys-sanctuary-status-says-she-wont-cooperate-with-deportation-of-illegals/; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

Over the weekend, Boston’s sanctuary city designation was highlighted by Democrat Mayor Michelle Wu, as Donald Trump, the incoming president, intensifies his plans to deport large numbers of illegal immigrants shortly after he enters his second term.

“The last thing we want is for people who are part of our economy, part of our school system, part of our community and the fabric of our city, to feel that all of a sudden they have to retreat into the shadows,” Wu said during an interview on Sunday, speaking about illegal aliens living in Boston.

When the city passed the Trust Act, which forbids Boston police from questioning, detaining, or arresting someone for non-criminal immigration enforcement purposes, Wu was a city councilor. Nevertheless, when the act was first enacted in 2014 and when it was updated in 2019, she backed it.

“The ordinance does allow police to cooperate with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement on criminal investigations, like human trafficking and drug trafficking,” according to WBUR, a local Boston outlet.

Boston’s sanctuary status, according to Wu, is crucial to ensuring that undocumented immigrants in the city feel at ease and are thriving.

“We want immigrants to know that it is safe for everyone, to be able to feel comfortable reaching out for emergency services, to report a crime, to ask for help, and generally to be part of our community,” she said.

Trump’s deportation plans have also been resisted by other Massachusetts politicians.

According to Democrat Governor Maura Healey, Massachusetts police will “absolutely not” help with immigration enforcement. Attorney General Andrea Campbell informed reporters that she and other Democratic attorneys general nationwide are ready to file litigation against the next administration. During her tenure as attorney general, Healey filed around 100 lawsuits against the Trump administration.

Wu added more context to her view on the situation.

“Elections have consequences, and the federal government is responsible for a certain set of actions, and a city, no individual city, can reverse or override some parts of that,” she claimed. “But what we can do is make sure that we are doing our part to protect our residents in every possible way, and that we are not cooperating with those efforts that threaten the safety of everyone by causing widespread fear and and having a large scale economic impact.”

Many illegal immigrants have been arrested by ICE in the Boston region in the last few years, being charged with crimes such as child sex offenses, and then released back into society.

This month, ICE declared that it had detained an illegal immigrant from Colombia who had been charged with luring a minor under the age of sixteen, distributing obscene pornographic material, and lascivious posing and exhibiting a child in the nude. According to the agency, ICE’s detainer request against him was disregarded.

ICE officers in Boston also made five arrests in March, including four suspected child rapists and a member of MS-13, a group of potentially dangerous criminals the officers claim were released due to local sanctuary policies that rejected detainer requests.

But it is unlikely that the Trump administration will be deterred by those states’ and localities’ lack of cooperation. President-elect Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, had a message for those jurisdictions this month.

“If you don’t want to work with us, then get the hell out all the way. We’re going to do it. What that means is, rather than sending 100 people to Boston, we’re going to send 200 agents to Boston. We’re going to get the job done,” Homan said.

Meanwhile, conservative social media users highlighted the clear “double standard,” arguing that Democrat detractors of illegal immigration deportation are hypocritical.

“Democrats say we should hate Trump and shouldn’t have voted for him since he’s a ‘criminal,’ talking about his lawfare court cases, yet when it’s a foreigner breaking the law who’s a REAL criminal and doesn’t respect the system enough to come here legally, they want to support, feed, and house them?? Make it make sense,” posted one Truth Social user.

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Migrant Surge Brings Killers and Criminal Gangs And the Dems’ “sanctuary city” policies make the danger worse.

 by  

SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/migrant-surge-brings-killers-and-criminal-gangs; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:


Former New York City Police Department Commissioner Ray Kelly, the department’s longest-serving commissioner, cautioned on Sunday that New York City’s quality of life “has really deteriorated.” Migrant crime is a major reason.

Venezuela’s notorious Tren de Aragua gang and El Salvador’s feared MS-13 — what former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker calls “prison-spawned gangs” — are threatening to take over American cities. They bring “mindless knuckle-dragging violence,” warns Swecker. They’re the “most dangerous gangs on the planet.”

Swecker speculates that countries are emptying their prisons deliberately. Gang leaders setting up crime rings in the U.S. “come out of the muck and the slime of the South American prisons.”

While law enforcement officials here are warning us about the collapse of public safety, left-wing pols deny there’s a problem. Ana Maria Archila, co-director of New York’s Working Families Party, calls the “chaos and insecurity” people are feeling a “false sense.” She blames it on racism and xenophobia, not reality. Open your eyes, Ms. Archila.

Public safety is visibly spiraling downward: migrants beating cops in Times Square; migrants running prostitution rings; migrants on mopeds robbing pedestrians; migrants shoplifting and stripping retail stores; and now a migrant who recently left New York has been arrested for killing a Georgia nursing student, Laken Riley. Not everyone violating the border is a hardened criminal, but President Joe Biden’s open borders are allowing the worst to get in.

When Mayor Eric Adams was asked on Feb. 20 about stabbing incidents and violence against cops at the Randall’s Island shelter, Adams said that “even the most peaceful person — being confined to an area with 3,000 people … there comes a time where it just irritates you.”

“Irritates”? Adams is downplaying a serious threat.

New York’s misguided “sanctuary city” policy makes the danger worse. If a migrant is arrested in New York, the NYPD is barred from communicating with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement to determine whether the migrant should be deported, jailed or allowed back on the street. On Monday, Adams stated clearly that sanctuary status must be changed so migrants who commit felonies can be picked up by ICE and deported. He’s said it before. Now it needs to happen.

Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, entered the U.S. from Venezuela illegally in September 2022, was granted “parole” under Biden’s policy and came to New York on a bus. While here, he was arrested once but not detained. Now he’s charged with murdering Riley, who was out jogging on the University of Georgia’s Athens campus.

Swecker suggests that “this man did not burst spontaneously into a criminal overnight. This is someone who has committed crimes before.”

After moving to Athens, Georgia, Ibarra was arrested three times, including for shoplifting. But Athens is also a sanctuary city, and he was always released.

On Saturday at CPAC, Donald Trump likened “migrant crime” to the deeds of fictional killer Hannibal Lecter, who eats victims. Not such a stretch in Ibarra’s case, considering he’s charged with “murder with malice” for bludgeoning Riley’s body until it was disfigured.

The vicious gang MS-13 is resurging and may join forces with Tren de Aragua. In 2017, an MS-13 gang hacked and beheaded four Long Island teens, using machetes, knives and a chisel. Gruesome.

The Left denies migrant crime is a problem. The public knows better. A new Pew Research Center report says 57% of Americans believe the huge influx of migrants is leading to more crime.

On Saturday, Adams stood in Times Square, boasting that it’s safe. But saying it doesn’t make it so. Just two days earlier, a teenager visiting the “Crossroads of the World” for the first time was knifed by a gang of masked attackers, including several migrants. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital with a collapsed lung.

Migrant gangs pose the biggest danger, but pervasive sex trafficking is also a scourge. Watch at about 6 p.m. each day as women exit shelters and get picked up in cars, leaving their kids behind for the night. It’s happening in all five boroughs, according to Homeland Security Investigations Deputy Agent in Charge Darren McCormack.

Are neighbors who criticize what’s happening xenophobic and racist? No. They just want a decent life, and they see it disappearing fast.

Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths.