Sanctuary cities are like the Land of Oz: a magical but terrifying world where reality has been stood on its head and the realm is ruled by weak leaders who hide behind grand words and imposing facades. Did I just describe Chicago and its delusional mayor, Rahm Emanuel? Get this vigorous quotation from the freedom-loving civic leader: “To all those who are, after Tuesday’s election, very nervous and filled with anxiety as we’ve spoken to, you are safe in Chicago, you are secure in Chicago and you are supported in Chicago. Chicago will always be a sanctuary city.”
Yes, about as safe as a hen in a fox house. Seriously, nobody is that safe and secure in Chicago because Chicago is the murder capital of North America and carries that distinction like a murderer caught in the act with a gun in hand. With an annual homicide rate above New York and Los Angeles, Chicago has become a little bit of hell on earth with competing gangs, drug wars, and the general ascendancy of the lowlifes. Contemporary life – and death – in Chicago has far outweighed all of the worst stereotypes of the Prohibition era when Al Capone ruled this town. Does Mayor Emanuel really think the illegal immigrants are “nervous and filled with anxiety?” What universe is this completely unfeeling, utterly detached municipal politician living in? It’s the legal citizens of Chicago who are more than just nervous and filled with anxiety; they are scared as hell of being caught in the crossfire of a gang gunfight.
More people have died in Chicago in the last decade of violent crime than perished in Kabul, Afghanistan in a civil war. This is clearly not just unacceptable for an American city; it is worse for an American politician to wax eloquent about the absurdity of illegal immigrant safety when he knows as well as anyone that the number of homicides in his fair city is hovering at around 700 as I write this but sure to rise by the time you read it.
So why does Emanuel and about a dozen other mayors want to retain their “sanctuary” status. Could it have something to do with retaining a voting bloc that is loyal to the mayor because he is loyal to them?
And let’s stop this nonsense about sanctuary cities having something to do with legitimate immigration. Do you think for a minute that if my friends from Toronto, Canada dropped in for the weekend and decided to set up shop that the authorities wouldn’t run them across the border within hours? They would just be a couple not a special interest for mayors.
So why would any mayor of any American city want to fight President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to evict criminal illegals from their city? And let’s be clear about this: Trump has no intention of deporting every illegal immigrant from U.S. soil – though he has a perfect right to do so. He is talking about criminals who murder, rape and steal. Yet mayors from New York to Seattle think they need to coddle these people.
It really is beyond imagination and beyond comprehension just how their brains are processing this issue.
If they think protecting criminal illegal immigrants is somehow about human rights then they might as well think that an open border is also about human rights – that whomever wants to enter the U.S. for whatever reason is free to do so.
One can only hope that a Donald Trump presidency will not be just about real action on economic issues such lowering taxes, eliminating mindless regulations and stopping unnecessary expenditures – as important as these issues are – but also about challenging assumptions and changing minds.
The Trump train ran not so much on political incorrectness as on truth. It is time to stop pretending our immigration system is not a hypocritical quagmire that condemns an open border while validating cheap labor. If a Republican president and Congress can solve the immigration riddle it will remain the dominant American political party for decades to come.
Immigration policy in the U.S. has reached the pinnacle of absurdity. When mayors of cities encumbered with criminality will argue that they desire to protect a criminal element that should not even reside there in the first place, then something has gone askew in the national psyche.
To the mobs that are in the streets because they cannot fathom a Donald Trump presidency, I ask how you can justify criminal illegals occupying your city and your opposition to Trump wanting to clear them out.
Trump has at least forced that debate in this country instead of pretending there is nothing wrong with this picture.
It’s about time.