David Campos, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors stated that ending San Francisco’s sanctuary city policy is “very dangerous,” and that the use of Kate Steinle’s death “to scapegoat an entire community” is “equally tragic” as Steinle’s death, while wondering, “Where is the outrage in the failure of the federal government to actually do comprehensive immigration reform? Where is the outrage in the fact that you had a gun that was actually stolen from a federal law enforcement agent? … You know, this has become an immigration issue, and yet, no one is talking about gun control” on Friday’s “MSNBC Live”
Campos said, “Well, first of all, let me say that what happened in the Steinle family case is tragic, but what’s equally tragic is that this tragic incident is being used by people like Donald Trump, Bill O’reilly, and others to scapegoat an entire community. You know, I was brought here as an undocumented child by my parents. that wasn’t my choice. But like so many people, I chose to be a good member of this society, which is how most undocumented people behave in this country. And what’s happening here is that people like Donald Trump are trying to score political points, and are pushing for a very dangerous policy, which is to make local law enforcement agents of immigration, and what San Francisco needed to do was, one, not only to send a message to the Donald Trumps of the world, but quite frankly, to send a message to the Democratic establishment, because people are wavering, to say what we need is comprehensive immigration reform –.”
When asked how it was dangerous to end San Francisco’s sanctuary city policy, he answered, “Well, let me say this, that San Francisco, its own policy actually allows for the removal of any dangerous individual that has any violent criminal history.”
Campos was then asked why Steinle’s killer was on the street. He responded, “Because in this case, you had a lot of different things that went wrong. First of all, there is the question of why was this person ever even transferred to San Francisco? We actually introduced a law that basically says before our law enforcement seeks the transfer of an individual, they need to check with our district attorney and with our other law enforcement agencies to see if we would actually prosecute. But let me explain this to you, the reason why it’s dangerous for us to become agents of immigration, the way that I explain it is this. Jose, in every neighborhood, in every community in this country, there are undocumented people living in those neighborhoods. Those undocumented people cannot come forward and report crime that they’re the victim of, or if they’re the witness of, if they do not have trust in law enforcement, and by coming forward and trusting law enforcement, they’re making the entire community safer. They are not going to come forward if they fear that local police are agents of immigration.”
When asked how you get people like Steinle’s killer off the streets, he said, “Well, first of all, on this case, let’s be very clear, we are still not sure exactly of all the things that happened. You know, in this case, it appears that the shot ricocheted off the ground. But let me say this, the challenge that I have with the way that people are talking about this, is that they look at an incident like this, and they assume that that is representative of an entire community. Newsweek had a very interesting piece that basically showed that if you look at facts, not rhetoric, not political points, but if you look at facts, undocumented people are less likely to commit violent crime than the rest of the population. So, why is it that when something like this happens — and by the way, the problem here is not just that this [individual,] you know, what San Francisco — even though San Francisco has become a political pinata. Where is the outrage in the failure of the federal government to actually do comprehensive immigration reform? Where is the outrage in the fact that you had a gun that was actually stolen from a federal law enforcement agent? We in San Francisco are actually doing something to prevent this, like I said. You know, we have a law that is trying to purge old warrants, so that we don’t transfer the wrong person. We’re also requiring that law enforcement actually do something with their guns. You know, this has become an immigration issue, and yet, no one is talking about gun control.”
(h/t Real Clear Politics)
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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