OPINION:
With little to no fanfare, the Justice Department repealed a President Donald Trump-era provision that stopped taxpayer-funded grants going to cities and counties and states that didn’t turn over illegals for federal apprehension and prosecution — that didn’t cooperate with border and federal immigration officials.
Goodbye, law. Goodbye, order. Hello, sanctuary cities.
This Joe Biden administration isn’t just going out of its way to message to the world that America’s open for illegals to enter. This Joe Biden administration is also making sure once they’re here, they have a place to stay.
They’ll be no booting of illegals under my watch — is the new bumper sticker of the Democrat Party.
“In an internal memo,” Reuters wrote, “acting head of the Office of Justice Programs Maureen Henneberg said that prior grant recipients, including cities, counties and states that were recipients of the department’s popular $250 million annual grant program for law enforcement, will no longer be required to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a condition of their funding. She also ordered staff to take down any pending Justice Department grant applications with similar strings attached and start the process over again.”
Did Democrats learn nothing from Kate Steinle?
Steinle was the woman who was walking on Pier 14 in San Francisco with her father, when illegal immigrant Jose Inez Garcia Zarate shot and killed her. That was in July of 2015, and the horrific incident was a key factor in the rise of Trump in the political world. Garcia Zarate, an illegal with several felony convictions to his name who’d been previously deported five times, had nonetheless found his way back into the United States and at the time of incident, had been enjoying the sanctuary status offered by the city of San Francisco. Trump called out the case as a last straw of the open border crimes seen under former President Barack Obama.
It wouldn’t be until 2020 before America would learn Zarate was completely absolved of any guilt — even of the obvious felon in possession of a firearm charge — and that Steinle’s family was left with nothing in the accountability column for their loved one’s death. That’s called a Travesty Of Justice.
Regardless, the sins of the city are obvious. If San Francisco hadn’t been such a loud and proud sanctuary for illegals, Garcia Zarate quite possibly, quite probably, quite almost definitely wouldn’t have felt too comfortable walking down the pier in broad daylight, picking up the bundled weapon from beneath the bench that had been partially hidden, and firing it off — mistakenly, according to the defense. Mistakenly or not, Garcia Zarate never should have been on that pier.
He never should have been in San Francisco.
His path never should have crossed with Steinle’s.
“We Are a Sanctuary City,” the Office of the Mayor of San Francisco website states. “Since 1989, San Francisco has proudly been a Sanctuary City. We will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our immigrant communities and fight for the progress we’ve achieved in this City. We are a sanctuary city, now, tomorrow and forever.”
Unapologetic.
Proud.
Despicably proud.
In February 2020, Trump — after duking it out in court with Democratic-run jurisdictions — won a federal appeals case that gave him the authority to impose immigration-related standards to certain funding, specifically the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program.
Biden’s Justice Department has now repealed that restriction.
The sanctuary cities are back in business.
The message to illegals is — come. The message to law-abiding and legal American individuals? Hide.
The streets have gotten just a little bit more dangerous.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.
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