Sanctuary cities are creating "a very dangerous" situation by appearing to offer "a safe haven for criminal activity" for illegal immigrants, former New York Police Department Commissioner Bernard Kerik tells
Newsmax TV.
In an interview Thursday with "Newsmax Prime" hosts J.D. Hayworth and Amanda Khan, Kerik said authorities "should be taking action to get [illegal immigrants] out of here… back over the borders, to make sure they're not committing acts of violence."
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"Sanctuary cities cannot be a safe haven for criminal activity," he said. "If you have illegals in these cities, we should be taking action to get them out of here, to get them back over the borders, to make sure that they're not committing acts of violence … taking a position where we're not going to touch anybody that's illegal – that's a very dangerous position."
Kerik also weighed in on the furor stirred up by Donald Trump's remarks on illegal immigration, saying, "People have to give some credibility to what Trump is saying."
"I know people don't like the way Mr. Trump is saying it," he said. "The bottom line is that we get a lot of illegals that come across the borders, committing crime in the United States, bringing drugs into the United States… [G]o down and talk to the sheriffs, talk to the immigration people that work the borders, talk to the border patrols and they will tell you that we have enormous problems on the border."
And he also angrily blasted the decision by
Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to fire Police Commissioner Anthony Batts, saying she should be the one to step down.
"This is hypocrisy," he said. "Baltimore's mayor told … Batts and the rest of the police department to stand back and … let the rioters destroy what they wanted… He did what he was told to do by the mayor and now she's … terminated him because she didn't like the police response to the riots.
"She created that response. If she's going to fire him, she should step down."
In praise of FBI arrests of suspected terrorist prior to the July Fourth holiday, Kerik said America is in "far better condition today than we were on Sept. 10 of 2001 with regard to our intelligence services."
"But God forbid we miss one, it could set us back an enormous amount," he added.
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