On July 7, the Democrat mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel announced a “Welcome to Chicago Ordinance” establishing the Windy City as a Sanctuary City for illegal aliens. Chicago thus joined some 60 localities across the United States that currently choose not to enforce the federal rule of law on deportation of illegal aliens.
Emanuel formerly served as White House Chief of Staff in the Obama administration, which condones Sanctuary Cities. These cities ignore current U.S. immigration law, which makes it a crime to enter the United States without documentation. Emanuel thus set the tone of his administration by condoning immigration lawbreakers.
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Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel speaks during a press conference.
(Getty Images) |
What followed was a crime wave in Chicago so severe that voices of reason suggest the new mayor may not be up to the job. In August, The Chicago Tribune reported that Emanuel was calling for the assistance of federal law enforcement. President Obama (who after college moved to Chicago to become a community organizer) responded with 50 federal agents. Their assignment is to reign in the shootings and killings by crime gangs that are tying Chicago in knots.
Since Chicago is a Sanctuary City, law enforcement officers, including the “feds,” cannot question criminals about their citizenship.
By not detaining illegal alien gang members for deportation, these federal agents find themselves complicit in violating U.S. immigration law — at the behest of the Obama administration.
The current code word for Chicago’s daily shootings and killings is not murder but “violence.” No mention is made by the mayor that the gangs committing the “violence” are Hispanic and include large numbers of illegal aliens. Chicago now ranks above Montgomery County, MD, and Los Angeles, CA, both with sanctuary designations, as home to the nation’s most vicious illegal alien criminal gangs.
The exact number of gang members in Chicago is guesswork but ranges from 68,000 to 150,000 members in 70 to 100 gangs. Politicians and social justice activists do not acknowledge that the vast majority of gang members are illegal aliens. As a result, Chicago, with its large Hispanic gang presence, is providing safe havens to criminals but dangerous crime zones to law-abiding citizens.
Although law enforcement officials estimate that the Latin Kings are the largest crime gang in Chicago, other observers believe MS-13 or Surenos (Mexican Mafia gang) or Barrio 18 may have the most gang members. The city also has black crime gangs, whose power is being diminished by the sheer number of Hispanic gang members. The black gangs, with a majority of their members U.S. citizens, appear to be joining forces to combat the Hispanic gangs.
Chicago is quickly becoming the murder capital of America, with shootings a daily experience. As of September 23, Chicago had at least 380 killings, more than 1,800 woundings — 71 of these stabbings — thus far this year; and this may be a low-ball count. In addition, many of the victims, rather than being gang members, are innocent bystander adults and children.
No one knows how to stop the “violence” — not the Chicago Crime Commission; Chicago Justice Project; Chicago Police Department; Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA); Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, & Explosives (ATF); social-justice nuns; and especially not the news media.
Internal documents provided to congressional committees by Obama’s Department of Homeland Security indicate that DHS officials have falsified “record” deportation numbers. In addition, these documents fail to mention that deported gang members often return to the United States in a matter of hours to resume gang activities. U.S. Border Patrol agents, off-the-record, say that deportation numbers have lots of helium in them, meant to humor U.S. citizens.
The Chicago police say some neighborhoods in the city are “free fire zones” that even the police hesitate to enter. The City of Chicago Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) is an agency that monitors police activities. Back on September 3, a shooting by a suspect armed with a TEC-9 (considered an assault weapon) occurred in a public housing project where President Obama once worked as a community organizer. When police wounded the assailant, IPRA opened an investigation of the action, as it does with most actions where police officers use weapons; yet IPRA does not investigate crimes in which gang members use weapons.
Chicago is not the only city to hide its crime rate and illegal alien gang numbers. It is joined by other Sanctuary Cities that have Hispanic gang killings, drug sales, prostitution rings, and political payoffs. At the same time that the Obama administration inflates deportation numbers, Sanctuary Cities deflate the numbers of criminal alien gangs.
What is a nation to do? The United States Congress has the power to withhold federal monies from Sanctuary Cities, until they obey federal immigration law and cooperate with federal immigration officials. Freedom depends on the rule of law; but in Sanctuary Cities, the rule of law is yielding to gang rule.
James H. Walsh was associate general counsel with the U.S. Department of Justice Immigration and Naturalization Service from 1983 to 1994. Read more reports from James Walsh — Click Here Now.