Immigrant Sanctuary Must Include a Cause for Denial

PERSPECTIVE-Would persons applying for citizenhip in the United States through the established legal process be denied if they had committed felonies? 

Murder, for certain, would be automatic cause for denial. 

Aggravated felonies, too, would very likely result in denial. One should note that some misdemeanors at the state level could qualify as aggravated felonies in evaluating an applicant for immigration.  

Follow this link for a partial list of offenses. The bottom line is that federal immigration law has a broader range of offenses in its tool kit to deport immigrants regardless of the path they followed to gain entry to the United States.   

Francisco Sanchez, who shot and killed Kathryn Steinle, had seven felony convictions, four of which involved drug charges. He also used a number of aliases. 

Owing to his criminal record, he would not have been eligible to enter the country legally under the law. The City and County of San Francisco are complicit in the murder of Ms. Steinle, not to mention all state and local politicians who allowed law enforcement to overlook past criminal activities when deciding to release an illegal alien from custody. 

Politicians argue that sanctuary laws are to protect average illegal immigrants who go about their business, and to encourage their cooperation with law enforcement.  Average immigrants do not commit felonies, contrary to what Donald Trump suggested. They will not be impacted by the deportation of real criminals.  If anything, getting career criminals off the street can only help them. 

Our elected officials may quibble over the number and degree of felonies as a matter of political correctness, or maybe even of conscience, when it comes to defining the conditions of sanctuary. It is impossible to fathom, though, allowing someone with multiple convictions – even nonviolent ones – to stay here one second beyond the end of a sentence. Such scum are time bombs destined to explode. 

(Paul Hatfield is a CPA and serves as President of the Valley Village Homeowners Association. He blogs at Village to Village and contributes to CityWatch. The views presented are those of Mr. Hatfield and his alone. They should not be construed to represent the opinions of the VVHA or the residents of Valley Village, individually or as a group. He can be reached at: [email protected]. ) Story editor: Linda Abrams

–cw