When Cities Defy the Law

By Ed Hoffman

Last week, 32-year-old Kate Steinle was tragically, senselessly murdered by an illegal immigrant while taking a walk with her father in San Francisco. Unfortunately, Americans being murdered by criminal aliens is not exactly a rare occurrence – more than 120 illegals have been charged with homicide-related crimes since 2010, and those are just the ones who got caught – but what makes this especially egregious is that the murderer was already a known felon to federal law enforcement.

45-year-old Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez (he really should get some more names) had been deported five times by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, and had seven felony convictions in the U.S. Why, then, was he still in this country – much less free to walk the streets of San Francisco? It’s because San Francisco is a “sanctuary city,” meaning it does not cooperate with the federal government when it comes to holding and identifying criminal aliens. At one point, Sanchez was in custody for his prior felony convictions – and San Francisco sheriff Ross Mirkarimi let him out, defying US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials.

There are more than 20 sanctuary cities in the United States right now; not surprisingly, Los Angeles joins San Francisco on the list. What about locally? We’ll get to that in a minute.

First, let’s talk about the problem at the state level. Governor Moonbeam signed the so-called Trust Act into California law last year, which prohibits local authorities from holding those with questionable immigration statuses “longer than necessary” to transfer them to federal immigration officials. With so much working against them – not to mention the anti-police movement sweeping the nation – how are local law enforcement officers supposed to keep our streets safe from violent crime at the hands of illegal immigrants?

But this is just happening in metro areas, right? Of course not. According to a report released by the Migration Policy Institute last year, there are more than 275,000 illegal immigrants living in the Inland Empire. Here are some more detailed statistics:

• There are 158,000 illegal immigrants in Riverside County
• There are 138,000 illegal immigrants in San Bernardino County
• 84 percent of illegal immigrants in Riverside County, and 79 percent of them in San Bernardino County, were born in Mexico

But their only crime is coming to this country illegally, right? That’s what many people will say, as if that means nothing. But the truth is, there are plenty of illegal immigrants who have committed crimes in addition to making this country their home without permission – and many of them are more than “low level offenders.”

I seem to remember when an illegal immigrant in San Bernardino shot and killed his sister-in-law over a card game a few years back. It was the first homicide by this man that police knew about; before that, he “only” had four arrest warrants for traffic tickets – you know, those “non-violent, low level offenses” we’re always hearing about from the people who don’t want illegals arrested. So he wasn’t violent, other than driving recklessly – no big deal, right? Until he shot and killed someone, and police discovered this was not his first homicide. Naturally, he fled back to Mexico once he knew cops were looking for him – but being that this was 2010, he could easily be back again, “living in the shadows” in the Inland Empire. And these are the people the left wants to protect?

Since Barack Obama’s election in 2008, protecting American citizens has ceased to be a commitment of our federal government – except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which can no longer do its job in cities like San Francisco. How long until a woman like Kate Steinle is killed by a criminal alien here in the Inland Empire – or, for that matter, a child?

We defy all the laws, and now people are dead. And we’re still supposed to think Donald Trump’s comments were out of line?

Ed Hoffman is host of The Main Event on AM590, which airs Saturday 9:30AM- 10:30AM and Sunday 4:00PM- 5:00PM. Follow him on Twitter @EdHoffman, and like him on Facebook by searching The Main Event 590.