Perry slams Obama for not cracking down on ‘sanctuary cities’
Republican White House hopeful and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry slammed President Obama and his administration for not cracking down on illegal immigrants in “sanctuary cities.”
He accused Obama of doing “absolutely nothing to prevent incidents like the murder of Kate Steinle,” a 32-year-old woman who was allegedly shot in San Francisco by a Mexican immigrant laborer who had been deported five times.
“There are over 200 sanctuary cities and counties in this country, and the U.S. Department of Justice has done absolutely nothing – nothing! – to prevent this,” Perry told John Catsimatidis on “The Cats Roundtable” on AM 970 in New York.
{mosads}“They should have been using the legal ability sanctioning these cities, sanctioning these counties, denying federal funding. It’s dangerous. It’s got to stop. We should pull the federal funding on these cities and counties that are promoting sanctuary policies,” he said.
Conservative Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) have filed an amendment to the Every Child Achieves Act, now pending on the Senate floor, that would steer funding meant for so-called sanctuary cities to municipalities that comply with the law.
“If not for sanctuary cities and the Obama administration’s continued destruction in other areas of immigration enforcement, Kate and others surely would be alive today,” Sessions said last week.
Sarah Saldana, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, told Congress in March that she would welcome legislation pressing local officials to help enforce federal immigration law.
She later walked back the comments after pro-immigrant groups protested.
Perry also panned Obama’s effort to reach a nuclear deal with Iran and his normalizing of relations with Cuba.
The president “is more interested in negotiating with the Castro brothers and with the Ayatollah in Teheran than he is in taking care of American citizens,” he said.
Three super PACs backing Perry’s campaign have raised nearly $17 million. He is mired in 10th place in the GOP primary, according to an average of national polls compiled by RealClearPolitics.com showing him with 3.6 percent support.
Perry told Catsimatidis his record will eventually distinguish him from rivals.
“Our record on job creation, our record on educational reform, our record on border security – nobody on that stage has the record that we have when it comes to performing and delivering,” he said.
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