HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — Surrogates for Hillary Clinton couldn’t describe her position Monday on “sanctuary cities.” One congressman even told The Daily Caller the safe havens for illegal immigrants don’t exist.
That’s a shift from 2015, when a Clinton campaign spokesman said, “Hillary Clinton believes that sanctuary cities can help further public safety, and she has defended those policies going back years.”
But Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, was asked on CNN Sunday if this was still Clinton’s stance. He was not able to articulate what Clinton thought about local jurisdictions that don’t comply with immigration detainers from Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE).
“We need comprehensive immigration reform. And part of impressive immigration reform is making sure that law enforcement has the tools to find these violent criminals and get them out of the country,” Mook said on CNN.
Then Clinton’s press secretary Brian Fallon told The Daily Caller Monday, “Robby got it right in his answer. She supports comprehensive immigration reform and in the meantime she trusts local law enforcement to set the right priorities.”
Congressmen who support Clinton and were serving as surrogates for her in the “spin room” after the first presidential debate were also unable to articulate her stance on sanctuary cities.
“You’d have to talk to the campaign about that,” Democratic Illinois Rep. Adam Schiff told The Daily Caller.
California Democratic Rep. Xavier Becerra, in fact, seemed to deny the existence of sanctuary jurisdictions altogether.
“Every city must comply with federal law, so all cities must comply with federal law. If you can point me to a city that doesn’t than I can respond to that question,” Becerra told TheDC when asked about Clinton’s stance on sanctuary cities.
When Becerra was told that Los Angeles and San Francisco are sanctuary cities, the California Democrat said, “You got your facts wrong.”
The Center for Immigration Studies and the Department of Justice’s inspector general both found that there are jurisdictions all across the country who don’t comply with ICE’s immigration detainers. Los Angeles and San Francisco counties are among those jurisdictions.