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White House Quickly Decides Now Would Be a Good Time to Tell Sanctuary Cities to Cooperate With ICE

Courtesy of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Sadly, it has taken some high-profile deaths at the hands of illegal immigrants for the Biden administration to suddenly — and conveniently, in an election year — discover what the rest of the country has known for three years: that the U.S. southern border is beyond a hot mess. Now, they are scrambling to clean up a disaster that they created. As Joe Biden prepares to actually visit the border on Thursday, what at this point do Democrats think they can possibly do to make Americans think the border is secured? Well, the Biden administration thinks it has the answer, and as usual, it is a day late and a dollar short. 

On Wednesday, the White House began to call on so-called "sanctuary cities" across the nation to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and turn over any illegal immigrants for deportation in their custody. The sudden concern over sanctuary cities' refusal to cooperate with federal agencies like ICE, comes in the wake of those high-profile murders that were committed by illegal immigrants. In what sure seems like a curious turnaround, a White House spokesman said on Wednesday,

"We welcome local law enforcement’s support and cooperation in apprehending and removing individuals who pose a risk to national security or public safety. When a local jurisdiction has information about an individual who could pose a threat to public safety, we want them to share that information with ICE." 

The White House spokesman went on to claim that,

"Just since May 12, DHS has removed or returned more than 565,000 individuals — the vast majority of whom crossed the Southwest Border. 565,000 removals and returns is more than every full fiscal year since 2013."

Just in case some don't know exactly what a sanctuary city is, it is a city or jurisdiction where officials intentionally limit their cooperation with immigration agencies like ICE to shield immigrants from deportation. Often, if immigrants commit crimes and are arrested, local authorities will release them before ICE can be notified and issue any detainers. Recently in Maryland, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador was one of five people arrested for the murder of a two-year-old boy. Nilson Trejo-Granados had been arrested for theft several times in Montgomery County. Each time ICE issued an immigration detainer, but Montgomery County refused to honor each of those detainers, and he was released. 

But it is no doubt the murder of 22-year-old Athens, Georgia nursing student Laken Riley at the hands of someone who should have never been in the country in the first place that has the White House sweating. Riley was also murdered by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela who first entered the country in 2022 and made his way to New York City, where he was arrested in 2023 and also released before ICE could take him into custody. 

Sanctuary cities are now causing election-year headaches for Democrats. On Monday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams stated that the city's sanctuary city laws need to be amended so that any immigrants who commit felonies can be turned over to ICE. 

The White House's attempt to rein in sanctuary cities, coupled with Joe Biden's meaningless visit to "the border," is just more gaslighting of the American people and an attempt to save his failing presidency, and they know it. Residents of Brownsville, Texas are having none of it as well, calling Biden's visit, "too little too late." The cherry on top of the border nightmare that the White House is suddenly taking notice of is the fact that immigration has become the number one issue for voters in November. 

Do all of that math, and what Democrats come up with is what they think will be an election-year-winning combo of getting the big guy to the border for some photo ops, making people think he cares, and reining in those sanctuary cities. 


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