Sanctuary cities increase incidents of crime by harboring illegal immigrants, according to Thomas D. Homan, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director.
The worst offenders are Chicago, New York City, San Francisco, and Philadelphia, Homan said in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
"Sanctuary cities, in my opinion, are un-American," Homan said in the interview.
"Is Chicago doing everything that it can to decrease the criminal activity up there? I say no . . . I say no because if you're an illegal alien, and you get arrested in the United States for a crime, and you get booked in Cook County, Chicago, my officers aren't allowed in the jail," the ICE acting director said.
"Let's talk about New York City, the site of the most horrific terrorist event in this nation's history, and they don't accept our detainers . . . New York City, they're proud of being a sanctuary city," Homan said.
"San Francisco. How soon they forget," Homan said in the interview, referring to the 2015 slaying of Kathryn Steinle by an illegal immigrant.
Sanctuary cities have policies that limit local police from cooperating with federal immigration agents.
Homan said his criticism was directed at politicians, not local police or sheriffs in the sanctuary cities.
"The street cops that I talk to want to help. It's the politicians who want to make this a political game. It's not a political game. This is a matter of public safety and life and death. We shouldn't be playing politics with this," Homan said.
In an Examiner interview on July 18, Homan said more resources are in the works to take on targets in those cities.
"In the America I grew up in, cities didn't shield people who violated the law," Homan said in the July 18 interview.
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