The Problem with Sanctuary Cities

Last year, 32-year-old Kate Steinle was murdered in San Francisco, a sanctuary city, by an illegal immigrant named Juan Francisco Lopez Sanchez. Sanchez had a long criminal record and had been deported back to Mexico five times, but continued to return. Just a few months prior to murdering Kate Steinle, Sanchez has been arrested by San Francisco police officers. However, even though federal immigration officers asked them to hold Sanchez, he was released under the sanctuary city law. If they had not done that, Kate Steinle would most certainly still be alive today.

People don't always agree on what makes a city a "sanctuary" city, but in general it refers to a city that refuses to cooperate with federal law enforcement officers in tracking and detaining illegal immigrants. Unfortunately, there have been serious consequences in sanctuary cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Just a month ago in Los Angeles, we saw a similar situation to what happened in San Francisco. After being caught illegally entering the country in 2012, Johnny Josue Sanchez was released because he did not have a prior criminal record. Since then, he was arrested on drug and domestic abuse charges, yet never turned over to federal agents because he lived in a sanctuary city. And just last month, he was charged with five counts of homicide for setting fire to a building where five people were sleeping. When you think of all the opportunities we had to keep him off of our streets before he murdered these five people, it makes you sick to your stomach.

Clearly, sanctuary cities are not an immigration issue -- they are a security issue and are putting the lives of Americans at risk. Unfortunately, my opponent, seven-term Congressman Chris Van Hollen has repeated his support for sanctuary cities, opposing legislation that would help to keep people safer from people with bad intentions. As we saw with his support for the dangerous Iran nuclear deal, Congressman Van Hollen is putting special interest groups ahead of the safety and security of the American people.

We have both legal and illegal immigration problems in this country and there is no easy solution. But sanctuary cities are not a solution -- they only create more problems.

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