CNN Analyst: Without ‘Stupid’ Sanctuary Law, Kate Steinle Would Be Alive

CNN Law Enforcement Analyst and retired NYPD Detective Harry Houck declared that Kate Steinle “would be alive today if they did not have this stupid sanctuary law in that crazy city of San Francisco” and the “responsibility has to lie on those politicians who implemented that insane law” on Monday’s broadcast of “New Day.”

Houck declared, “This woman would be alive today if they did not have this stupid sanctuary law in that crazy city of San Francisco. There — I blame not only the shooter, but also the responsibility has to lie on those politicians who implemented that insane law. The — immigration wanted him back ,after they turned him in. And there’s no way they can say they didn’t know what his record was, because every time somebody is arrested, they do a criminal investigation, a background investigation on a guy, what we call is a BCI check or triple-I check in New York, and they’ll find out about every conviction and every single time that he was deported back to Mexico.”

Former Clinton policy adviser and Latin American policy analyst Ana Maria Salazar responded, “what I know about law enforcement — it means that you have to give priorities. And these priorities sometimes have to do with making difficult choices. I totally disagree with what he says, what Harry says, because all the data shows that migrants, either who have documents, or undocument[ed] that come to the United States have lower crime rates. And yes, maybe this horrible situation, and where we have this man who was deported five times, came back to the United States. It kind of raises the issues — most of these drug cases are federal cases, why did he come back? I think there’s a question to ask, why wasn’t he kept in jail? And when I did — when I was at the — both at the Pentagon and working at the State Department, we tried to negotiate with Mexico some kind of mechanism by which the Mexicans would know who was being deported back to the United States. And I can almost bet on this, that when he was deported back to Mexico, the Mexican government did not know who this man was. Now, all of this does not erase this horrible tragedy where this woman dies, and where you have a very difficult immigration debate that is being fueled by Donald Trump’s hate language against Mexicans, because this is not only migrants, his language is against Mexicans, Mexican-Americans who are living either legally or illegally in the United States. And when you use this type of hate language, and then you have these types of cases, [it] makes it impossible to have a sane debate as to what should be US policy towards Mexico and US policy towards the, what? 11 million people who live in the United States, Mexicans and Mexican — Mexicans who do not — who live illegally in the United States.”

After some heated crosstalk where Salazar and attempts to gain control of the discussion between Houck and Salazar where Houck accused Salazar of trying to “steal the whole show here with your bureaucratic rhetoric coming from somewhere out in Washington, DC?”

Houck said to Salazar, “You’re the one who automatically injects all other Mexicans into this specific conversation. And that’s not what we’re talking about. We are talking about criminals like this man, alright, who’s got a criminal record. And Americans should start getting very upset about this. We have a death of an innocent young girl, a guy who was deported five times who shouldn’t have ever even made his way back here. Alright, so why doesn’t Obama have those borders closed so this can’t make it back here? And let me tell you something else, the Mexican government doesn’t give a damn about anybody we deport. If they did, they would also close the borders on their side, they are doing absolutely nothing.”

After another period of both Houck and Salazar attempting to talk, Salazar argued, “If you got your numbers right, you would know that, one, the number of Mexicans that are crossing the border has dramatically decreased during the Obama administration. Two, if you knew your information and understand the immigration process and the borders, which apparently you don’t, you would understand that most of the undocumented Central Americans that are trying to go into the United States are being detained by the Mexican — Mexican government. and three, look at your numbers…migrants who come through indocumented, that come into the United States, have a much lower crime rate than the rest of the population in the United States.”

Midway through Salazar’s comments, Houck interrupted to say he didn’t trust the Obama administration, which has “been caught lying several times already.” And accused Salazar of not caring about criminals.

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

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