Ken Paxton and Donald Trump Rail Against ‘sanctuary Cities'

WASHINGTON - Texas attorney general Ken Paxton joined President Donald Trump on Tuesday at a session aimed at pressuring cities that shield immigrants from deportation.Paxton called it "ridiculous" for Austin, Houston, El Paso and other cities to withhold full cooperation from federal authorities."What they are defending are people who are committing crimes who should not be in the country," he said.Trump has long railed against so-called sanctuary cities. He staged the White House roundtable with likeminded lawmakers and state and local leaders to drum up support for a crackdown.Such cities, Trump said at the Roosevelt Room event, are "causing a lot of problems for this country" because they protect "bad actors," "predators," "rapists" and "killers" -aiding "hardened criminals" at the expense of "innocent Americans.""It's so basic. It's called law and order and safety and we're going to have it in our country," Trump said. "Sanctuary cities are dangerous and we're going to take care of the problem."Paxton pointed to crime in Texas as justification for the focus on the issue."We have over 600,000 crimes committed by illegals since 2011," he told Trump. "There are 70,000 assaults, 6,000 sexual assaults. 1,200 people killed... The people of Texas are grateful for what you are doing."According to the latest published data from the Texas Department of Public Safety, more than 245,000 criminal aliens have been booked into local Texas jails between June 1, 2011 and the end of last month. Roughly two-thirds were in the country illegally.Those arrests involved 1,323 homicide charges; 77,448 assault charges; 78,198 drug charges; 4,248 robbery charges; 7,012 sexual assault charges; and 9,739 weapon charges.Statewide tallies from 2011 to 2016 - data for last year isn't yet available - show 7,358 murders, 59,569 rapes, 186,622 robberies, 109,508 sexual assaults, and 405,651 aggravated assaults.In other words, crimes involving immigrants represent a fraction of the total in Texas.  Continue reading...

Copyright The Dallas Morning News
Contact Us