Chicago Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot called President Trump’s bluff on sending illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities, saying the Windy City welcomes those who would enter our country illegally. And she is not the only Democratic mayor to open their arms to immigrants.
With more than 100,000 illegal immigrants arriving at the southern border in March alone, many of them women and children, a full blown crisis has emerged. The Border Patrol is overwhelmed and all detention centers are full, and due to our antiquated immigration laws, the federal government is forced to release detained illegal immigrants on to U.S. soil just because they can only be held not more than 20 days.
All that being said, the President has confirmed a report from the Washington Post that he’s “giving strong considerations to placing illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities only.”
“California certainly is always saying, ‘Oh we want more people,’ and they want more people in their sanctuary cities. Well, we’ll give them more people. We can give them a lot. We can give them an unlimited supply — and let’s see if they’re so happy. They say they have open arms — they’re always saying they have open arms, let see if they have open arms,” President Trump said Friday at the White House.
The first openly gay mayor of Chicago, Mayor-elect Lightfoot, appeared on CNN and told anchor Anderson Cooper that President Trump was being “provocative,” saying his suggestion is “much ado about nothing.”
She also stated that Chicago has “a whole infrastructure that’s built up” to protect and provide for illegal immigrants.
When CNN’s Anderson Cooper implied that Lightfoot was in agreement with President Trump “using” illegal immigrants as “a weapon against political opponents,” the mayor-elect pushed back while touting her city’s efforts in helping illegal immigrants defy our laws.
“No, no,” she replied. “Look, don’t get me wrong. What I’m saying is I don’t think we should take the bait every time the president puts out a provocative tweet. What I think we need to do is make sure that we are being very clear and speaking our values.”
“We are a city that is a sanctuary city,” Lightfoot continued. “We have immigrants from all over the world who call Chicago their home. They’ll continue to do that, and we’re going to continue to make sure that this is truly a welcoming community for those immigrants and we want them to come to the city of Chicago.”
As for California, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo posted on Twitter and said that his city would welcome illegal immigrants sent their way.
“@realdonaldtrump plans to release detained immigrants to @cityofsanjose? We welcome any families willing to endure such extraordinary hardships and to take such tremendous risks to be a part of our great country,” Licarrdo tweeted.
Berkleley Mayor Jesse Arreguin also joined in to say they are a “proud sanctuary city” that welcomes illegal immigrants, only too happy to assist them in defying our laws.
Philadelphia’s Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney said in a statement that his city “would be prepared to welcome these immigrants just as we have embraced our immigrant communities for decades,” according to Reuters.
Other Democrats were critical of the President, such as Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
“The Trump Administration’s latest hateful idea is nothing more than a needless distraction and a waste of time,” Garcetti tweeted. “We need real solutions that uphold our values — not disgraceful policies that demonize immigrants and will never become reality.”
The other great haven for illegal immigrants in America, New York City, was also eager to trash Trump for taking on our broken immigration system, as seen in the response from hard-left Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“Cruelty is the only constant in @realDonaldTrump’s immigration policy. He’s obsessed with creating crisis after crisis in a cynical ploy to turn us against our immigrant neighbors. It didn’t work before. It won’t work now.” tweeted Bill de Blasio.
California Democrat Nancy Pelosi criticized President Trump for his statement on sending illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities.
On Friday she stated that rounding up immigrants and shipping them to sanctuary cities is “disrespectful” to our nation. Seems like her Democrat colleges don’t agree with her statement.
It sure is hard to explain why Democrats wouldn’t eagerly invite more illegal immigrants or undocumented asylum seekers into the districts and cities that are supposed to be the most welcoming.
