Speaking during a press conference in the sanctuary city of Chicago, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem explained how sanctuary jurisdictions across the country are putting Americans at risk by “choosing criminals” with their law enforcement policies rather than prioritizing protecting law-abiding American citizens.
During the presser, which occurred on Friday, August 8, Secretary Noem went on the rhetorical warpath against those like the state leadership in Illinois and the city leadership in Chicago, saying that she would be ensuring that the criminals are locked up, regardless of what the far-left types behind the sanctuary policies want.
Beginning, she said that “obstructionists” are trying to protect dangerous criminals from deportations, saying, “I’m here today because the elected leaders in the state of Illinois are ignoring the law. In fact, they’re being obstructionists when it comes to getting dangerous criminals off of their streets.”
Continuing, she said, “They’re deciding the dangerous criminals that are murderers, rapists, money launderers, have committed assault, that are trafficking children are more important than the families that live in the communities here — that includes Governor Pritzker, Mayor Johnson and others who have worked so hard to protect these dangerous criminals.”
Building on that, she noted that the federal government had taken some horrific criminals off the streets and had gotten no help from state or city leadership in doing so. She said, “Today, I’m highlighting four different examples of individuals that we’ve recently arrested here out of this office with the good work of ICE and our HSI officers that we’ve taken off the streets without the help of the governor or the mayor.”
Adding to that, she gave an example of the sort of criminals that DHS and ICE had arrested and deported without the support of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson or Gov. Pritzker, saying that one such illegal “had previously been convicted of predatory sexual criminal assault against a victim under the age of 13.”
Another illegal that DHS caught was, Secretary Noem claimed, “arrested back in 2020 the first time for aggravated criminal sexual abuse and attempted criminal sexual abuse of a minor under the age of 13.” And, still another “was convicted of these after he stabbed his own wife and his 19-year-old daughter. It was not the first time that police have been called to his house for domestic disturbance, but he was never held accountable until recently by these federal officers.”
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Then, after giving many examples of the sort of lawbreakers caught by DHS, Secretary Noem commented on the sanctuary city policies generally, saying, “The debate over so-called sanctuary policies has real consequences. Governor Pritzker and Mayor Johnson are answering that question every single day, of who should be our priority, who should be our responsibility? And over and over again, they’re choosing criminals.”
Posting about the matter in a tweet that included a video of Secretary Noem’s speech, the DHS X account said, “Governor Pritzker and Mayor Johnson are allowing the worst of the worst to roam free. They would rather play politics and be a “sanctuary state” than actually protect their people. The debate over so-called “sanctuary policies” comes down to one simple question: do you stand with law-abiding Americans, or with criminal illegal aliens?”
Watch Noem here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video