On Wednesday, Washington D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray signed an executive order which bars District police officers from questioning anyone, even those they arrest about their immigration status.
Gray said: “This executive order ensures public safety by ensuring that our police resources are deployed wisely and our immigrant communities feel safe cooperating with those who are sworn to protect them.”
Gray adamantly made that statement, thou just how shielding those here illegally from possible deportation then “ensures public safety” is still unclear.
Shortly after the order was signed the outspoken chairman of Virginia’s Prince William County, Corey Stewart told Fox News: “This is an abomination. This is the capital of the United States, and to have the nation's capital as a sanctuary city where essentially federal law is not going to be enforced sends all the wrong messages -- not just in the United States but around the world.”
Stewart recently sued the Department of Homeland Security in an effort to discover what action (if any) the federal agency has taken against the 4,000 illegal aliens his county has turned over to ICE for deportation.
Stewart took this measure after Prince William County police began noticing that the illegal aliens they arrested for various crimes and then turned over to ICE, kept showing up in their jail.
A tragic example of the feds’ ‘catch and release’ policy came on August 1, 2010 when Carlos A. Martinelly Montano, 23, slammed head on into a car in which three Benedictine nuns were traveling. Sister Denise Mosier was killed instantly while her two companions were taken by helicopter to the hospital with serious condition.
Montano was charged with DUI and involuntary manslaughter.
It was actually Montano’s third DUI arrest in Prince William County over the last five years. At the time of the crash, the illegal alien was free on bond while awaiting deportation proceedings.
The case received national attention and had many Americans calling for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s resignation.
According to spokesman Jonathan Perok, Prince William County Police notified ICE after both his first and second DUI arrests. The department is now investigating how the illegal alien was able to obtain a valid driver’s license.
Stewart issued the following statement on the case: “The despicable thing is that this criminal was … handed over to ICE twice, and released by ICE twice. He’s gone out an killed a nun. That’s a perfect example of what’s wrong with immigration enforcement in this country. The blame is on representatives in Congress for being so flaccid on the issue, and they continue not to fund the deportation of illegal immigrants in this country.”
As we have seen in the past, cities which lay out the welcome mat for illegal aliens are simply inviting criminals to victimize their own citizens.
In San Francisco, on June 22, 2008, three members of the Bologna family were gunned down by Salvadoran national and gang member Edwin Ramos. Tony Bologna, 48, and his sons Michael, 20, and Matthew, 16 were shot to death by Ramos as they sat in their car on a crowded street, in the city´s Excelsior District.
Ramos who is a member of the notoriously violent drug gang known as MS-13, shot the Bologna family to death because Tony Bologna had temporarily blocked the car in which Ramos was traveling, as the two cars made their way through an intersection. The Bologna men were returning home from a family barbecue.
As a juvenile, Ramos had committed felony attempted robbery and assault.
Shortly after the shooting, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, Juvenile Probation Department officials did not report Ramos to federal immigration authorities for possible deportation because of San Francisco´s stated sanctuary policy.
Despite the rhetoric coming from many local officials claiming that they have no legal role in enforcing our immigration laws…that is simply a lie.
In 1996 the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIR) was passed as a federal law which requires local governments to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (now part of the Department of Homeland Security).
The local governments that have been enforcing their own sanctuary policy are actually defying this law. U.S. citizens have a right, according to the Constitution to expect to be protected from violations of federal law by foreign nationals who are not authorized to be in the country, without local police departments aiding and abetting these criminal aliens in their unlawful activities.
Of course, to the political leadership of cities such as San Francisco and Washington D.C.--the rule of law means very little. Therefore, we can never expect cities ruled by the left to do their part in protecting citizens from criminal aliens.
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