By June 30, 2017 in Chicago, 323 people had been killed in homicides in Chicago. That’s one more than at the same time in 2016. It had been twenty years since Chicago’s streets saw over 700 homicides, the city topped that number last year, and is on track to do so again in 2017.
The Trump administration has announced many plans to combat the violence and law breaking on city streets around the country. The most visible plank of this plan has been to remove illegal immigrants, especially those who commit crimes, from American streets as quickly as possible.
You might think underfunded, understaffed cities suffering from gang violence would be happy to hand over their illegal immigrant trouble makers to the federal government for trial and deportation, but that’s not the case in Chicago.
But Chicago is a “sanctuary city,” and blocks ICE agents from taking custody of illegal immigrant criminals. The Trump administration has threatened to pull federal funding for cities that block ICE agents from doing their jobs, but Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a former chief of staff to President Barack Obama, is suing the Trump administration over the policy.
Voice of America reports:
The city of Chicago will sue the Trump administration over its threat to cut off certain federal funding to so-called sanctuary cities that provide asylum to illegal immigrants.
Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the city will file its suit Monday.
“Chicago will not let our police officers become political pawns in a debate,” Emanuel said at a news conference on Sunday. “Chicago will not let our residents have their fundamental rights isolated and violated. And Chicago will never relinquish our status as a welcoming city.”
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has said the Justice Department will withhold a justice assistance grant from cities that fail to comply with new requirements related to immigration. Municipalities known as sanctuary cities are those that refuse to cooperate with federal requests to detain and hold noncitizens under arrest on charges unrelated to their immigration status, until immigration enforcement officers can take custody and possibly deport them.
Chicago has used justice assistance grants in the past to buy equipment for its police department. Sessions announced that any city applying for the program this year must meet new requirements: The should allow Homeland Security officers to enter jails and inquire about inmates’ citizenship, and they also would be required to notify federal officers 48 hours before any suspected immigration violator is released from local custody.
The Chicago lawsuit is expected to argue that the Justice Department would be federalizing local jails and requiring city authorities to violate the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, which requires probable cause for an arrest and blocks what it calls unreasonable search and seizure.
Read more here.
The death rate in Chicago is appalling. The website DNAInfo has compiled a timeline of Chicago murders. The staggering numbers prove Chicago needs help.
