Tom Cotton: Trump Is Right, ‘Whole Point’ of Sanctuary Cities to ‘Release Criminal Aliens into the Streets’

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is standing by President Trump’s remarks on sanctuary city policies, which are cities and localities that protect criminal illegal aliens from deportation.

This week, Trump reiterated the Democrats’ support for sanctuary cities and illegal immigration, noting in a speech that “Democrats are ‘going to flood your streets with criminal aliens.'”

New York Times political correspondent Jonathan Martin called the comment “nativist.”

A routine Trump on stump line that plays on nativist fears and that will draw close to zero condemnation from GOP lawmakers, via @maggieNYT

"… adding that Democrats are 'going to flood your streets with criminal aliens.'"https://t.co/KWRVSS7MfM

— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) October 2, 2018

In response, Cotton defended Trump, saying the statement is entirely true, as the purpose of sanctuary cities is to protect criminal illegal aliens from federal immigration enforcement.

“Democrats support sanctuary cities, the whole point of which is to release criminal aliens into the streets,” Cotton said.

Democrats support sanctuary cities, the whole point of which is to release criminal aliens into the streets. https://t.co/ZIoQ9TaxnV

— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) October 2, 2018

Most recently, Breitbart News has reported on numerous cases where criminal illegal aliens were routinely released by sanctuary cities back into American communities, where they went on to commit other crimes.

A six-time deported criminal illegal alien has been charged with murdering three men in the sanctuary state of California. Likewise, during a recent raid by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in California, 90 percent of the 150 criminal illegal aliens had previous criminal convictions but were never turned over to ICE for deportation.

A previously deported illegal alien, Joel Valera, was convicted of murdering a beloved youth football coach in California after he was able to roam freely across the state under an alias despite having been previously convicted for child sex crimes.

In another sweep by ICE in the New England area, a number of criminal illegal aliens were arrested after being released by sanctuary cities, including an illegal alien who had been accused of strangling a pregnant woman. That illegal alien had an ICE detainer placed on him, but the sanctuary city ignored the detainer and released him back into the community.