ICE Director Reveals Why Sanctuary Cities Are a DANGER To Illegal Immigrants

In an interview with Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner this week, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Thomas Homan said that his agency was experiencing a surge of morale under a president who was finally allowing them to do their jobs. Thanks to Trump putting an end to the Obama-era restrictions on immigration officers, Homan said, ICE was now able to target those eligible for deportation, take them into custody, and put them on a first-class ticket out of the country.

“You can like President Trump, not like him, like his policies, not like his policies, but one thing no one can argue with is the effect they’ve had,” Homan said.

But while Homan recognizes that not everyone is on board with Trump’s focus on enforcing the law, he can’t bring himself to see their side of the argument.

“You’d think everybody would be celebrating these policies,” he told Bedard. “What this president has done is taken the handcuffs off of law enforcement officers who are charged with enforcing immigration laws.”

On the subject of sanctuary cities, Homan was decisive in his revulsion, calling them a “ludicrous” development. “In the America I grew up in,” he said, “cities didn’t shield people who violated the law.”

Beyond the moral and ethical implications, however, Homan insisted that the logic of sanctuary cities like San Francisco and Chicago was entirely backwards. While liberals argue that these cities improve the relationship between local law enforcement and immigrant communities, Homan says that the policies actually put illegal immigrants – and enforcement agents – in greater danger. It is much safer and cleaner to make a deportation arrest in a jail cell than out on the streets, after all.

“If you really want to tap down the fear in the immigrant community, I would think the counties would want me in their jails,” he said.

Homan said that while the Trump administration was continuing the Obama-era policy of prioritizing dangerous criminals for deportation, no illegal immigrant was exempt from arrest.

“What I want to get is a clear understanding from everybody, from the congressmen to the politicians to law enforcement to those who enter the country illegally, that ICE is open for business,” he said. “We’re going to enforce the laws on the books without apology, we’ll continue to prioritize what we do. But it’s not OK to violate the laws of this country anymore, you’re going to be held accountable.”

Words can scarcely express what a breath of fresh air it is to have administration officials talking this way about a problem that has plagued this country for more than 40 years. The supposedly-complex riddle of illegal immigration has puzzled Congress for decades; who knew that turning back the tide would be a simple as electing a president willing to enforce the damn law?