America's most murderous city spends $200K to keep illegals
Thursday, March 15, 2018 | Michael F. Haverluck
Baltimore, Maryland, appears to be adding to is problems as the city with the highest murder rate in America – especially after its mayor announced that it will be spending $200,000 to protect illegal aliens from being deported.
Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh is defying President Donald Trump’s fight against illegal immigration by using hundreds of thousands of dollars from a grant and taxpayer funds to pay a team of city attorneys to represent and defend illegal aliens facing deportation.
“We hope that everyone gets due process,” Pugh expressed, according to the Baltimore Sun. “We’re not making a decision as to their status – we’re making the decision to be supportive of individuals who live in our city.”
Good money after bad?
Instead of spending money to keep illegals – who have a higher incidence of crime – off the streets in a city that has an unprecedented 56 homicides per 100,000 residents, according to USA Today, Baltimore is paying exorbitant legal costs to put them back on the most dangerous streets in the nation.
“The city’s spending panel on Wednesday approved spending $200,000 to pay for the attorneys, who the Democratic mayor said will get to work within weeks defending immigrants against federal deportation lawyers,” the Baltimore Sun reported. “Half of the $200,000 is funded by a grant from the Vera Institute of Justice – a New York nonprofit. The other half will come from the city’s budget. The combined pot of money is expected to help about 40 people obtain legal representation.”
The gang- and drug-plagued city appears to be inviting more illegal activity – rather than deterring it.
“[This comes] less than a year after Baltimore prosecutors ordered staff not to charge illegal immigrants with minor, non-violent crimes because it could get the offenders deported,” the Washington watchdog group, Judicial Watch, informed.
Similar to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf condemnation and retaliation against Trump and ICE agents working to deport criminal illegal aliens, Pugh is pushing back against the president’s tough-on-immigration policy.
“The funding is part of a broader effort to help immigrants that city officials, charity leaders and advocates launched after President Donald Trump’s inauguration,” the Baltimore Sun’s Ian Duncan pointed out. “Under the Republican president, federal immigration authorities have increased deportations. In September, federal immigration officials arrested 28 people in Maryland during a nationwide sweep targeting immigration violations in what Trump has labeled ‘sanctuary’ jurisdictions.”
Continuing the Obama legacy …
Baltimore is following in the footsteps of other so-called “sanctuary cities” by defying federal laws and making it legal or permissible for illegal aliens to say in the United States.
“The trend toward taxing U.S. residents to help illegal aliens began under the Obama administration, which in 2015 designated $2 million to pay for lawyers for illegal alien minors,” WND reported. “The Department of Justice handled the money through a special program for illegals called Justice AmeriCorps.”
Since the federal government under the Trump administration is no longer in the business of using tax dollars to help criminal illegals stay in the country, left-leaning city officials are digging into residents’ pocketbooks to fund programs to let illegals evade the law – and in many cases, resume their illegal activities.
“Now, cities – many of which also are declaring themselves ‘sanctuary’ cities that ignore federal immigration law and policy – are spending their own taxpayers’ money since the administration of President Trump has strengthened immigration enforcement,” WND’s Bob Unruh pointed out.
This enabling of illegals is rampant in several of 2017’s top 5 most murderous cities, including Chicago (No. 1 with 650 murders), Baltimore (No. 2 with 343) and Los Angeles (No. 5 with 286).
“Chicago’s City Council led the way by approving a $1.3 million legal defense fund and the city of Los Angeles followed with a $10 million fund to help illegal immigrants dodge justice,” Judicial Watch reported. “Baltimore took it a step further by also creating a policy to go easy on alien criminals in state cases to avert collateral immigration consequences.”
Baltimore bowing to belligerence
Last summer, Baltimore’s Chief Deputy State’s Attorney Michael Schatzow – who serves as second-in-command to the city’s top prosecutor and oversees major crimes at the state agency – warned prosecutors in an internal memo that they should refrain from charging illegal immigrants with minor, non-violent crimes.
“[The Trump administration’s deportation efforts] have increased the potential collateral consequences to certain immigrants of minor, non-violent criminal conduct,” Schatzow notified his staff, according to Judicial Watch. “In considering the appropriate disposition of a minor, non-violent criminal case, please be certain to consider those potential consequences to the victim, witnesses and the defendant.”
As Trump gets tougher on immigration, more lenient immigration policies in Baltimore and beyond are becoming the law of the land.
“Besides Baltimore, two Maryland counties – Montgomery and Prince George’s – offer illegal immigrants sanctuary,” the government watchdog noted. “When the Trump administration announced it would enforce immigration laws, Baltimore Mayor Pugh reiterated that police and other public agencies in her city never ask about immigration status.”
She promised fellow residents that upholding federal laws of citizenship and residency plays no part in her city.
“We are a welcoming city,” Pugh assured inhabitants of Baltimore on the local news, according to Judicial Watch. “We want everyone here. We want to be able to provide opportunities and jobs and careers for folks. That’s where we are in Baltimore.”
Baltimore’s progressive stance on illegal immigration is affecting the entire state – which is looking to follow the lead of ultra-liberal California after it became the nation’s first official “sanctuary state” in January – as lawmakers still have their sight set on Maryland becoming America’s second official sanctuary state.
“This year, Maryland legislators tried to pass a measure to make the state an official illegal alien sanctuary, but the bill – known as the Trust Act – hit a roadblock in a Senate committee after passing in the House of Delegates, and the governor has vowed to veto it … even if it survives,” Judicial Watch announced.
https://www.onenewsnow.com/legal-cou...-keep-illegals
