By, Ian Pelkowski

Ian can be reached at ian@halseynews.com for questions and comments.

sanc·tu·ar·y

ˈsaNGk(t)SHəˌwerē/

noun

noun: sanctuary; plural noun: sanctuaries

1.a place of refuge or safety.

“people automatically sought a sanctuary in time of trouble”

That is the literal definition of sanctuary. The progressive left believes that sanctuary cities make the US a safer place by harboring illegal aliens from federal immigration enforcement. Right wingers believe sanctuary cities are harmful to the citizenry of their respective jurisdictions, for just that, harboring illegal immigrants from federal immigration enforcement. Sanctuary cities are labeled as such because they have policies directly contradicting federal law by having one or more that are non-cooperative and obstructive to immigration enforcement.

According to The Washington Examiner and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, not only are Progressives wrong about sanctuary cities but its actually the complete inverse. Apart from initially breaking the law upon first entering the country illegally the Attorney General said sanctuary city policies “allow illegals to commit crimes, then roam free in our communities” when speaking to the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, back in 2016.

In that hearing the Louisiana Attorney General gave statistics regarding the increased crime rates in another well known sanctuary city, Los Angeles. He said “Los Angeles saw crime rise in 2015: violent crime up 19.9 percent, homicides up 10.2 percent, shooting victims up 12.6 percent, rapes up 8.6 percent, robberies up 12.3 percent, and aggravated assault up 27.5 percent.”

In Los Angeles 95% of all outstanding warrants for homicide are for illegal aliens (about 1,200 to 1,500). Somewhere around 2/3 of all felony warrants in Los Angeles (about 17,000) are for illegal aliens.

But just last Thursday a story broke in my home state. In Montgomery County Maryland, 2 illegal immigrants “allegedly” brutally raped a 14 year old girl after approaching her in the hallway of Rockville High School and asking for sex. When she refused she was drug into the schools bathroom where the rape “allegedly” occurred. The 2 men were 17 and 18, both enrolled by the school administration as freshmen at the high school.

When interviewed by the police the rapists denied having any sexual contact with the 14 year old girl and merely going into the bathroom to tell jokes, probably in Spanish. The only “joke” the forensic investigators found in the bathroom was blood and suspected “male fluid”. The suspects were denied bail by a judge, who stated they were dangerous and a flight risk but I highly doubt they would fly away, more likely hop the same fences they hopped to get to this country in the first place.

In the current case in Montgomery County one of the perpetrators was caught in Rio Valley Grande, Texas by an immigration official and had a pending deportation order by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the time the crime was “allegedly” committed. A spokesperson of the center for immigration studies says that this case is partially to blame on Obama’s immigration policies regarding the surge of illegal aliens coming from Mexico and central America which she believes is the cause of the two criminals being in this country.

When Immigration and Customs officials wish to assume custody of an illegal alien or want to collect information about the pending release of a criminal illegal alien and to request that the individual be held in custody after their release for no more than 48 hours they issue what is called a detainer.

Over a short period of time of 19 months, from January 1, 2014 to September 30, 2015, Immigration and Customs Enforcement had issued more than 17,000 detainers that have been rejected by sanctuary cities, of those 17,000 about 11,800 were issued for illegal aliens with prior criminal convictions.

President Trump’s executive order 13768 section 9(b) has ICE publish a release on non-federal jurisdictions that have released illegal aliens from their custody, regardless of their immigration status or if they have been issued a detainer or similar request. This report also includes the individuals citizenship, detainer issued and rejected dates, and notable criminal activity. So, lets take a look at the release, specifically regarding the reports from Maryland.

From January 28, 2017 to February 3, 2017 there were 3 rejected detainers, the 2 from El Salvador being charged for violent crimes and one from Mexico charged with drug trafficking. I’ll be keeping an eye on these 3 to see if they end back up in the system. For the rest of the report we can see the types of crimes these illegal aliens have committed, and I have to ask why would Progressives in these sanctuary cities be okay with these criminal illegal aliens walking around in the streets with their husbands, wives and children after being jailed?

Many of those in the report have simple drug charges or convictions but in New York City you can see one convicted of possessing obscene material and another for intimidation. Identity theft and forgery pop up every once in awhile. But two individuals stick out to me, one being charged with homicide(in Pennsylvania, a citizen of Jamaica) and the other much weirder. The individual(from Texas, a citizen of Mexico) was convicted of flight to avoid (prosecution, confinement, etc. ) and I’m just dying to ask exactly where you think he’s going to go.