The false narrative of sanctuary cities

Thomas Homan:

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Let’s examine the false claim about protecting victims and witnesses. First of all, this doesn't make sense. ICE is not interested in identifying any victim or witnesses to crime. A sanctuary policy prevents ICE from accessing jails, and it prevents ICE from being notified when an illegal alien is released from a jail.

Unless the police arrest and book a victim or a witness, ICE would never know of their existence. If victims and witnesses are afraid to report a crime, it is because of the false stories pushed out to the public by pro-immigrant groups, NGOs and politicians who want to vilify and mischaracterize ICE.

If, by chance, a victim of a crime talks to ICE, they could actually become eligible to obtain legal authorization to remain in the U.S. as a victim. That is a fact you never hear anti-ICE groups acknowledge.

ICE's ability to access jail to speak with an illegal immigrant in the country in violation of federal law and who has been locked up for a crime, presents no danger at all to a victim or witness. The fact is that if you look up recidivism rates, 50 percent of those criminals will re-offend within the first year and as many as 75 percent will re-offend within five years.

Why would the local criminal justice system refuse to let the federal ICE officers enforce their law and prevent further people to become victims?

Another false narrative is that these sanctuary laws protect the immigrant community. Sanctuary policies accomplish the exact opposite. Data clearly shows that when an illegal immigrant is released from jail, they will most likely re-offend in the same community where they live — the immigrant community.

A clear example is that MS-13 gang members almost always conduct their criminal activity within the immigrant community. How does releasing a child predator, a convicted drunk driver, a convicted robber or someone convicted of assault back into the community help those who are part of it?

The fact is that releasing criminals back into those communities puts victims at greater risk. It doesn’t protect communities. It only protects the criminal illegal immigrant.
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By forcing ICE to go into the communities to make arrests, they sometimes find other illegals that lead to collateral arrests.   It also puts other people at risk of violence if the perp resists arrests.  The sanctuary cities polices are stupid and counter productive.