President Trump condemned so-called “sanctuary cities” and accused Democrats in Congress of “holding troop funding hostage and putting our national security at risk” over their push to provide permanent protections for Dreamers in a government spending bill.
“Democrats in Congress not only oppose our efforts to stop illegal immigrants and crack down on sanctuary cities, now they are demanding amnesty as a condition for funding the government, holding troop funding hostage and putting our national security at risk,” Trump said in his weekly address. “We cannot allow it.”
The president focused his weekly address to the nation on illegal immigration and spoke of the death of Kate Steinle, a 32-year-old who was shot and killed on a San Francisco pier by an illegal immigrant in 2015.
The illegal immigrant, Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, was deported five times before he shot Steinle two years ago. Zarate’s lawyers said Steinle was shot by accident after the bullet from his gun bounced off a concrete walkway.
“He was free to harm an innocent American because our leaders refused to protect our border, and because San Francisco is a sanctuary city,” Trump said. “In sanctuary states and cities, innocent Americans are at the mercy of criminal aliens because state and local officials defy federal authorities and obstruct the enforcement of our immigration laws.”
A jury found Zarate, who is from Mexico, not guilty or murder, a decision Trump called a “final injustice.” The president also said his acquittal is “yet one more reason Americans are so upset by sanctuary cities and open border politicians who shield criminal aliens from federal law enforcement.”
“We mourn for all of the American families, of all backgrounds, who will have any empty seat at Christmas this year because our immigration laws were not enforced,” he said. “No American should be separated from their loved ones because of preventable crime committed by those illegally in our country.”
Congress passed a short-term continuing resolution Thursday that will keep the government open for the next two weeks, which gives Republicans and Democrats additional time to negotiate with Trump on a 2018 spending bill.
“Every senator and congressman will have to make a choice: Do they want to protect American citizens or do they want to protect criminal aliens?” Trump said. “Reasonable people can disagree on many things, but there can be no disagreement that the first duty of government is to serve, protect, and defend American citizens.”
