Senator Schmitt Chairs Senate Judiciary Hearing Highlighting Painful Consequences of Sanctuary City Policies

Schmitt Exposes Democrats' Refusal to Prioritize American Citizens Over Illegal Aliens

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, held a hearing titled "Protecting American Citizenship II: Federalism, Sanctuary Cities, and the Rule of Law." Schmitt highlighted the painful results sanctuary cities have on American families and called out Senate Democrats for prioritizing illegal immigrants over American citizens.

Watch the Senator's opening remarks HERE.

"There are moments when a policy debate stops being a policy debate, when all the abstractions fall away, when all the buzzwords and talking points and legal jargon fall away, and what we're left with is very simple question about the first duty of government. Sanctuary policies force this question, because this is not really about federalism. It's not really about local control, and it certainly isn't about compassion. It's about who comes first, the American citizen or the illegal alien? And sanctuary jurisdictions have answered that question. They've answered it with their laws. They've answered it with their policies. They've answered it with their conduct. They put the illegal alien first. That is what a sanctuary policy means in the real world. An illegal alien commits a crime and gets arrested by local law enforcement. That arrest tells government exactly where the person is. Federal immigration authorities then make a very simple request, let us know when this person is being released, so that we can take him into custody and begin the removal proceedings. That is not some extraordinary burden, that is not a constitutional crisis, that is not conscription, that is basic cooperation. It's the kind of coordination that happens every single day between state, local, and federal law enforcement in every other context. And yet, when the subject is immigration, sanctuary jurisdictions refuse, they withhold the information, they block the transfer, they release the alien, and then they send the alien back into the community. That is a choice, a very deliberate choice, and it's a choice that gets people hurt. Sometimes it gets people killed. The defenders of these policies always want to keep this debate at a level of theory. They want to talk about values and discretion and trust and constitutional structure. They never want to talk about the consequences. But the consequences are the story. The consequences look like Laken Riley, murdered by an illegal alien who had already had encounters with law enforcement and was still turned loose in a system that puts ideology ahead of public safety. Consequences look like Stephanie Minter, an American mother whose killer was shielded by Fairfax County sanctuary policies. The consequences look like Sheridan Gorman, an 18 year old college student in Chicago shot in the back while walking with friends by an illegal alien who had already been caught at the border, released, arrested again, then released again. They look like Katie Abraham, a young woman in Illinois killed by an illegal immigrant drunk driver who had already been deported once, reentered the country, and evaded the laws thanks to sanctuary policies. These are not freak accidents. They're not acts of God. There are foreseeable consequences of public officials making a conscious decision to obstruct immigration enforcement and release people who should never have been released back onto the streets in the first place.", said Senator Schmitt during his opening remarks.

Senator Schmitt asks Mr. Joe Abraham, a parent who lost his daughter at the hands of an illegal immigrant released in a sanctuary city, what he would say to Democrats on the painful consequences of their open border policies.

Schmitt: "I appreciate your courage in being outspoken about this. What message would you give to these politicians who defend sanctuary cities? What are they missing, what do they not understand about the impact that this has"

Mr. Joe Abraham: "First, I know they have no consideration for that, that's just my take from my own experience so that's one. I wish they were able to put themselves in someone else's position and look at what their policies are doing. This intention thing, or the moral high ground they all think they have, when they're doing it for really a immoral purpose, it does not make it moral, it does not make it right. You're going to tell me that four or five years ago you had everyone in the world bomb rush our border and that's okay? Now you're saying we can't be extreme in what we're doing, where were these voices four years ago saying this is way to extreme? It didn't take legislation to stop what happened over those years. If you want to get down to the nitty gritty here; anyone who came in during the Biden regime ought to be looked at. Katie's killer wasn't the worst of the worst, that poor girl in Chicago, he wasn't the worst of the worst. How does it become that way? It shouldn't just be worst of the worst. I'm sorry they missed that."

Watch the Senator's full questioning HERE.

###