By Congressman Jason Smith
We are a nation of law and order…or at least that is what we are led to believe. Your elected officials are supposed to honor and uphold the law, not recklessly flaunt and break it, all while potentially putting American lives at risk. But this is exactly what happened in California last week when Oakland Mayor, Libby Schaaf, tweeted a warning to dangerous criminals who are in our country illegally and told them to be on the lookout for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Officers. This only compounded a growing problem in places like Oakland, San Francisco and other coastal illegal immigration safe havens – they are breaking U.S. law, refusing to comply with federal orders and allowing illegal immigrants to fill their cities free of any repercussions.
As we saw with the tragic loss of Kate Stinle, Sanctuary Cities and open borders put our families, our communities and our law enforcement officers in danger. Jose Ines Garcia Zarate had been deported five times before he shot and killed Kate on a pier in San Francisco in 2015. Oakland’s Mayor gave people like Kate’s killer time to run and hide from authorities or mount an ambush on ICE Agents when the raids were executed.
California has truly gone crazy. After hearing the news about the Oakland Mayor’s warning, San Francisco Congresswoman and leader of House Democrats, Nancy Pelosi, shared her support for Mayor Schaaf and called enforcing these federal laws, “unjust and cruel.” It just adds to the list of insults Leader Pelosi continues to hurl at Missourians…she told us our wage increases and bonuses as a result of the new tax cuts were “crumbs” and now she says protecting our borders and deporting criminals who are here illegally is “unjust and cruel”?
U.S. ICE Chief Thomas Homan said that Schaaf’s actions were, “no better than a gang lookout yelling ‘police’ when a police cruiser comes in the neighborhood.”
The Trump Administration announced this week that they are suing California for violating federal statutes. I stand with President Trump on this issue and will continue my work to defund Sanctuary Cities that can’t follow our country’s laws. Simply put, Missouri tax dollars shouldn’t go to fund the out of touch values of places like San Francisco and Oakland. It is why I supported President Trump when he said we would be ending federal grants to Sanctuary Cities and it is why I authored and passed language in the U.S. Congress last September cutting off federal infrastructure dollars from Sanctuary Cities. If you can’t follow U.S. law, then you shouldn’t receive U.S. tax dollars. To this day, Senate obstructionists continue to do everything they can to prevent my legislation from ever reaching President Trump’s desk.
Your government’s top responsibility is to provide for the security of you and your loved ones. Something has gone seriously awry when government officials are not just overlooking threats, but are actually proactively taking actions to make us less safe. There must be consequences, there must be change and we must hold accountable those office holders, those cities and those states which decide to pick and choose which laws they want to follow.
