American metropolises that threaten to remain "sanctuary cities" for illegal immigrants despite an expected Trump administration crackdown should have their law enforcement and education programs defunded, says Michael Cutler, a former special agent with the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
"His hands aren't [tied]. He's certainly talked about defunding the cities and I hope he doesn't just mean law enforcement. He ought to cut funding for education," Cutler said Tuesday to Bill Tucker on Newsmax TV's "America Talks Live."
"The Congressional Budget Office did a study back in 2007 and said there were 12 million illegals, said it cost 20-40 percent more to educate kids who can't speak English.
"And if ever we have an amnesty program of any sort … we're talking about the potential for millions of more students. This is devastating to the school system, it's devastating to employment."
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Sanctuary cities — which include New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Detroit, Seattle and Salt Lake City — protect illegal immigrants by not prosecuting them for violations of federal immigration laws.
Those protections have, in some cases, led to violent crimes against American citizens, but some of the cities have threatened to defy any federal efforts to end their sanctuary designations.
As well as burdening the nation's budget, the sanctuary cities aid in the growth of homegrown terrorists, according to Cutler.
"Look at terrorism, look at the warnings that we've had from John Brennan, the head of the CIA, from James Comey, the head of the FBI, saying that ISIS was embedding terrorists, and the refugee flow in finding other means to come here and kill us," he told Tucker.
"We've seen it time and again. We've naturalized terrorists. One of the two Tsarnaev brothers that carried out the Boston [Marathon] attack — one was a resident alien, one had citizenship.
"These are failures of the immigration system and it's the immigration laws and our borders that are first and last line of defense. So [Trump] ought to be looking at funding. I also think someone needs to take a hard look in maybe prosecuting people."
Cutler said former President Jimmy Carter's declaration that everybody is an immigrant should be dispelled.
"Illegal aliens have no right to be in the United States, it has nothing to do with race, if you look at the immigration law, Title VIII United States Code Section 1182," he said.
"It's about keeping out aliens with dangerous communicable diseases, aliens who are severely mentally ill, that are violent, sex offenders, criminal, spies, terrorists, human rights violators, aliens who are fugitives from justice and that aliens who displace American workers.
"There is nothing about race, nothing about religion or ethnicity in the law. If you look at the 9/11 Commission Report … immigration was the fundamental failure that enabled terrorists and not just the 9/11 terrorists, to enter America and embed themselves."
Cutler said he found it "remarkable and infuriating" that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York "continually go to Washington and beg for more money because New York is a prime target of terrorists which it is."
"We've been hit multiple times and yet they ignore the 9/11 Commission Report and what all the sanctuary cities are doing is to create the potential staging areas for terrorists who are determined to carry out attacks anywhere in the United States," he said.
"This isn't about xenophobia. We lock our doors at night to protect ourselves. When people enter the White House without authority, they add an extension to the gates around the White House and tighten security. That's all we're asking our immigration laws to do, keep out those people who threaten our lives."
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