U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions told federal prosecutors and law enforcement officers on Friday that he has their backs and urged the nation to support common sense measures to reduce gang violence.
“This should be obvious: if we want to reduce violent crime we should reduce illegal immigrant crime,” Sessions said, while addressing the group in Houston. “If you’re not prepared to lock up dangerous criminals to protect the public, you’re not fulfilling your responsibility.”
He drew attention to cities run by Democrats who are defying federal law enforcement agents and said getting serious about crime means cutting off these sanctuary cities.
“We cannot continue giving funds to cities that undermine federal law officers,” Sessions stated.
He also reiterated that massive numbers of MS-13 gang members endanger cities like Houston, Los Angeles and New York, leading to brutal murders in which undocumented immigrants are allegedly responsible.
Sessions cited examples, including the 99-year sentence handed down this week for an MS-13 member in the homicide of 28-year-old Hector Daniel Diaz in southwest Houston in 2015.
Dozens of protesters representing groups such as Black Lives Matter Houston assembled outside the building where Sessions spoke. They chanted “immigrants are welcome here.”
This comes the day after a Clinton-appointed federal judge threatened Sessions with a contempt charge for attempting to deport a woman and her daughter back to their home country of El Salvador and four days after the attorney general vowed to press forward with the Trump Administration’s efforts to rescind DACA, despite another federal judge’s order.
“We cannot continue giving funds to cities that undermine federal law officers,” Jeff Sessions said Friday, also quoting a poll and saying “80 percent of Americans believe that cities should turn over criminal aliens to immigration officials.” pic.twitter.com/U6yFd1MHAy
— POLITICO (@politico) August 10, 2018
Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
