MANY US CITIZENS DISAGREE WITH THE PRESIDENT ON “SANCTUARY CITIES”

…Anti-sanctuary law protesters rally outside of the City Hall, before a vote on whether to comply with the “sanctuary state” law in Los Alamitos, Calif.

President Trump wants to bus emigrants to these cities mainly to punish Democrats, not to deal with the southern border issue.

White House officials are pressuring US immigration authorities to release detainees onto the streets of “sanctuary cities”.  This is their way of retaliating against the President’s Democratic political adversaries. 

No, this is not just rumors, it came directly from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials and from White House e-mail messages reviewed by The Washington Post.

However, a White House official and a spokesman for DHS sent identical statements to The Post, saying that this proposal is no longer under consideration.  The spokesman said:

“This was just a suggestion that was floated and rejected, which ended any further discussion.”

But, after the word that it was just a suggestion came out and that it wasn’t under consideration, the president made a direct statement and he repeated that it was his desire for ICE to “send all detainees to such cities.“ Trump said he would send the cities: “An unlimited supply of these ‘illegals’.  Trump also added: “They said they would welcome the illegals open arms.  Let’s see how open their arms are now…?”

But, back in February, after the White House pressed ICE’s legal department to do this, ICE rejected the idea as “inappropriate” and they rebuffed the administration.

The White House believes it could punish Democrats, particularly Speaker Pelosi, by busing ICE detainees into her district and others in California before their release.  This is per two DHS whistleblowers who independently reported the busing plan to Congress.  One of the whistleblowers spoke with The Washington Post, and several DHS officials who confirmed the accounts. They spoke on the condition of anonymity for discussing internal deliberations.

After hearing this, local citizens held protests with protest signs outside a San Francisco courthouse, arguing against Trump’s tough immigration enforcement efforts.

“The extent of this administration’s cynicism and cruelty cannot be overstated,” said Speaker Pelosi’s spokeswoman Ashley Etienne. “Using human beings, including little children, as pawns in their warped game is to perpetuate fear and demonize immigrants. This is despicable.”

Senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller has discussed the proposal with ICE.  This is according to two DHS officials.  Matthew Albence, who is ICE’s acting deputy director, immediately questioned the proposal.  Albence declined to comment on it, but issued a statement through a spokesman acknowledging there had been a discussion about the proposal.

President Trump has made immigration a central aspect of his administration, and he has grown increasingly inflamed at the increase of migrants coming from Central America.  He often falsely casts them as killers and criminals who threaten US security.  He does this by pointing to the few cases in which an immigrant has killed a US citizen.  He has offered multiple times the notable murder case on a SF pier back in 2015.  He continues to rail against the liberal sanctuary-city policies, falsely saying that they endanger all Americans.  (Most illegals in the country try to avoid any issues with the law or any trouble that could cause them to be deported.)

“These outrageous sanctuary cities are grave threats to public safety and national security,” Trump said in a speech to the Safe Neighborhoods Conference in Kansas City, Mo.  This was less than a month after the White House asked ICE about moving detainees to such cities. “Each year, sanctuary cities release thousands of known criminal aliens from their custody and right back into the community.

So, they put them in, and they have them, and they let them go, and it drives you people a little bit crazy, doesn’t it, huh?”

For the majority of those “known criminals”, their only crime is being an “an undocumented immigrant”, not that they are all, “criminal killers”.

“It was basically an idea that Stephen Miller wanted that nobody else wanted to carry out,” said one congressional investigator who had spoken to one of the whistleblowers. “What happened here is that Stephen Miller called people at ICE, said if they’re going to cut funding, you’ve got to make sure you’re releasing people in Pelosi’s district and other key congressional districts.” The investigator spoke on the condition of anonymity only to protect the whistleblower.

The idea of releasing immigrants into sanctuary cities was not presented to Ronald Vitiello, the agency’s acting director, according to one DHS official familiar with the plan. Last week, the White House rescinded Vitiello’s nomination to lead ICE, giving no explanation, and Vitiello submitted his resignation a few days later, ending his 30-year-career.

The day after Vitiello’s nomination was rescinded, President Trump told reporters he wanted to put someone “tougher” at ICE.  DHS officials said they do not know whether ICE’s refusal to adopt the White House’s plan contributed to Vitiello’s removal.

Trump had praised the former AG Sessions's work to shut down “all sanctuary cities” and president Trump has said that the Justice Department was doing a "fantastic job" for getting rid of sanctuary city’s policies. 

The White House busing proposal had reached ICE first in November as a highly publicized migrant caravan was approaching the United States.  May Davis, deputy assistant to the president and deputy White House policy coordinator, sent the proposal to officials with US Customs and Border Protection, ICE and the Department of Homeland Security with the subject line: “Sanctuary City Proposal.”

“The idea has been raised by 2 principals that, if we are unable to build sufficient temporary housing, that caravan members be bussed to small- and mid-sized sanctuary cities,” Davis wrote, seeking responses to the idea’s operational and legal viability. “There is NOT a White House decision on this.”

The whole plan to retaliate against sanctuary cities is not a new idea.  It officially came just after Trump agreed to reopen the government in late January, following the five-week shutdown over wall funding. The president gave lawmakers three weeks to come up with a plan to secure the border.

It was during the mid-February standoff that one whistleblower went to Congress alleging that the White House was considering a plan to punish Democrats if they did not back-off on ICE funding for more beds.  A second White House official independently came forward after that with a similar plan.

According to both, there were at least two versions of the busing plan being considered. One was to move migrants who were already in ICE detention to the districts of Democratic opponents. The second option was to bus migrants apprehended at the border to sanctuary cities, such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco.

The point is that this idea has been discussed, and continues to be discussed as a way to punish Democrats.  This goes back to AG, Jeff Sessions, and it has been seriously considered since last November.

Therefore, this bussing of illegal aliens could actually happen!

Copyright G. Ater 2019