A week of finger-pointing over the death of a young woman, shot in San Francisco allegedly by an illegal alien with felony convictions, has focused a national spotlight on an entirely dysfunctional federal immigration system that's further undermined by so-called “sanctuary” cities.
It's incomprehensible that federal authorities turned over the suspect, who had been deported at least five times, to local authorities in a city that nose-thumbs U.S. immigration law. In turn, San Francisco dropped drug charges against Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez and released him in March, reports Ken McIntyre for The Daily Signal.
An estimated 200 sanctuary “jurisdictions” refuse to enforce “detainers” used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold criminal aliens in local jails. ICE asks only that local and state jurisdictions voluntarily inform the agency before releasing “suspected priority” aliens, reports Mr. McIntyre.
That's nonsense. These law-scoffing sanctuaries, combined with the Obama administration's abysmal immigration enforcement, “have created a public safety crisis,” says Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. A closer look by the committee at these “get out of jail” jurisdictions is expected next week.
But it shouldn't take a tragedy, which is not an isolated one, either, to finally do something about a long-broken immigration system.
