On Thursday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “The Hill,” San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu argued that the removal of dangerous criminals in the city by ICE “helped us make our case” that sanctuary city policies improve safety.
Host Blake Burman asked, “You’ve also been quoted as saying sanctuary city laws improve public safety. I’m looking at San Francisco, January 23, ICE removed an illegal immigrant convicted of sex with a minor. February 8, two men convicted of lewd acts [with] a child were found and taken out, another man wanted for homicide in Mexico. How can you make the case that the policies improve public safety when we’ve seen ICE go in and remove people like this?”
Chiu answered, “You’ve actually just helped us make our case on what we’re trying to say here, because sanctuary policies are about improving trust between immigrant communities and law enforcement, about making sure that victims and witnesses are coming forward, working with our local police officers to make sure–.”
Burman then cut in to say that these arrests happened at the start of the Trump administration.
Chiu responded, “Actually, there have been plenty of arrests during this time period. We are trying to take criminals off our streets and we have hundreds of police chiefs around the country who agree with us. The studies show that, not only are immigrants committing less crimes, but sanctuary jurisdictions have actually seen no increase or lower crime rates. And what we’re trying to do is keep peace within our borders, but, that being said, it is the job of the federal government to enforce lawful immigration laws, it is not the work of state and local police officers to do this. It’s not the role of our local law enforcement to become deputized as ICE agents.”
Chiu added that the city complies with warrants and the sanctuary law is not designed to interfere with legal federal immigration enforcement.
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