Tag: sanctuary cities

Sanctuary State Illinois: Illegal Alien Accused of Killing GOP Elected Official and His Wife in Fatal Crash

In the sanctuary state of Illinois, where Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) has attempted to impede federal immigration enforcement, an illegal alien is accused of killing a Republican elected official and his wife in Coles County.

Police say that 34-year-old illegal alien Edwin Pacheco-Meza of Honduras was driving a van on Oct. 24 when he crossed the center lane and struck 71-year-old Michael Clayton and his wife, 66-year-old Gail Clayton — killing them instantly.

Michael Clayton was a Republican elected official who served on the Coles County Board.

“Mike and Gail were a team in every sense. Together, they lived their lives with strong values, unwavering love for family, and a deep dedication to their hometown,” the couple’s obituary reads:

They believed in supporting the Charleston community and keeping their business local whenever possible. Whether it was groceries, gifts, or meals, they always chose local shops and markets, proudly supporting small businesses and encouraging others to do the same. They were familiar faces at the Charleston Farmer’s Market, always taking time to visit with neighbors and friends.
[Emphasis added]

Pacheco-Meza, who crossed the southern border as an unknown got-away, was in his vehicle with 18-year-old illegal alien Juan Morales-Martinez of Guatemala, who crossed the border in December 2023 and was released into the United States interior by the Biden administration.

The illegal aliens were found with an extended magazine, firearm ammunition, drugs, and an open container of alcohol in their vehicle, police say.

Pacheco-Meza was charged with reckless homicide and drunk driving, while Morales-Martinez was charged with drug possession and weapons violations.

After they were arrested, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged detainers against the illegal aliens, seeking custody of them, but the detainers were ignored by the Clark County Jail thanks to Pritzker’s sanctuary state policy.

Still, ICE agents waited for Morales-Martinez to be released from jail and arrested him outside of the jail. Pacheco-Meza remains in Clark County Jail.

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Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Asks Reporter If the Word Illegal Alien Is ‘Sci-Fi’ Term

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson melted down after a reporter asked a question that used the term “illegal alien.” 

Johnson said:  “We don’t have illegals. Aliens — I don’t know if that’s from some sort of sci-fi message you wish you’d had. The legal term for my people was slaves — you want me to use that term too? Let’s get the language right.  We’re talking about undocumented individuals who are human beings. The last thing I’m going to do is accept racist, nasty language to describe them.”

Chicago is a sanctuary city, meaning that it won’t partner with immigration officers who deport illegal aliens unless those people are wanted on a criminal warrant by local or federal authorities, if they have been convicted of a serious crime and remain in the United States illegally, or if they are a clear threat to public safety or national security.

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Convicted Pedophile Illegal Alien Released by Sanctuary City, Arrested Again

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the arrest of Rick Martinez Lopez, an illegal alien from Guatemala with multiple convictions in Virginia. 

Despite his history as a convicted pedophile and registered sex offender, the Richmond City Jail released him in August after refusing to honor an ICE detainer. 

That decision allowed a violent criminal back into the community, proving that the consequences of sanctuary policies are not abstract but dangerously real.

Martinez Lopez’s record is extensive and alarming. His convictions include sexual assault of a child, failure to register as a sex offender, and probation violations. 

He was a known threat, yet local officials chose to ignore a lawful detainer request from federal immigration authorities. 

Instead of cooperating with ICE, Richmond authorities prioritized political ideology over public safety, enabling a repeat offender to walk free in Virginia neighborhoods.

The release demonstrates how sanctuary policies function in practice. 

Federal immigration officers attempted to carry out their duties, but local officials refused to cooperate, placing ideology above enforcement. 

These policies undermine public trust and erode the ability of federal officers to protect communities from individuals already proven dangerous. 

Rather than safeguarding families, sanctuary decisions increase the likelihood that predators remain in close proximity to vulnerable populations.

Martinez Lopez entered the United States illegally at an unknown time and place, bypassing any form of lawful inspection. 

His presence in the country reflects how failures at the border combine with sanctuary loopholes to create lasting dangers. 

When local governments decline to assist federal officers, the result is not community protection but heightened risk. 

Communities are forced to live with the consequences of criminals shielded from deportation.

After his release, Martinez Lopez spent weeks freely moving about before ICE finally apprehended him on October 14. 

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Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier Files Supreme Court Lawsuit Against Gavin Newsom and California Over “Sanctuary” Policies for Illegal Aliens

Florida is taking the fight straight to the top.

Attorney General James Uthmeier announced late Wednesday night that Florida has filed a landmark lawsuit against California in the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that Governor Gavin Newsom’s “sanctuary” state policies are putting American lives at risk and violating the Constitution.

“Tonight, we filed a lawsuit against Gavin Newsom and California in the U.S. Supreme Court because their so-called ‘sanctuary’ policies for illegal aliens are harming states like Florida,” Uthmeier announced.

“California must pay for the carnage of their open border policies and unlawful CDL programs.”

The lawsuit comes after a deadly crash in Florida involving an illegal immigrant from India, identified as Harjinder Singh, who had obtained a commercial driver’s license (CDL) from California and later Washington State despite being unable to read road signs or speak English.

The crash killed three Haitian nationals living legally in the U.S. under temporary protected status.

It was revealed that Singh received a work permit from the Biden regime in June 2021 after the Trump administration denied him one in September 2020.

While he illegally crossed in 2018, it was Biden who gave him permission to live and work in the United States, and it was California that illegally granted him a driver’s license.

As Fox News’ Sean Hannity reminded viewers Wednesday night, the illegal driver “was only behind the wheel because California gives out regular driver’s licenses  even commercial ones to illegals.”

Once an illegal immigrant secures a standard license, upgrading to a CDL becomes easy, despite federal law requiring English proficiency and road safety knowledge.

In the wake of the tragedy, the Department of Transportation, under Sean Duffy, announced it will withhold $40 million in federal grant money from California for failing to enforce English language requirements for truck drivers.

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Noem demands Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker drop sanctuary policies after alleged illegal immigrant murderer arrested: ‘He’s failing those families’

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem criticized Illinois Governor JB Pritzker for upholding sanctuary laws after requesting the extradition of an illegal immigrant who allegedly killed a woman in her Illinois apartment and has since fled to Mexico.

Gabriel P. Calixto is the individual suspected of stabbing 24-year-old Emma Shafer in her Springfield, Illinois, apartment in July 2023. Calixto was in the United States illegally when the crime was committed, and has since been captured by Mexican law enforcement.

Calixto is being charged with first-degree murder and domestic battery in connection with the attack.

“The vicious illegal alien murderer who has been evading justice for two years after stabbing 24-year-old Emma Shafer has been ARRESTED. We will continue to work with federal authorities to coordinate extradition proceedings,” Noem stated. “THANK YOU to our law enforcement partners for bringing this perpetrator to justice.”

Noem went on to criticize Pritzker’s opposition to President Donald Trump’s imminent federal intervention in Chicago to conduct immigration raids while highlighting the issue of violent crime that has plagued Chicago for decades.

“For 13 consecutive years, Chicago had more murders than any other American city,” Noem stated on Sunday. “In fact, just last year, in 2024, they had three times the amount of murders than LA did, five times more than New York City.”

“So he can talk about what a great job he’s doing as governor, but he’s failing those families who will no longer have their child with them, their mother or their father or their cousin, aunt, and uncle that are gone forever because of the violence that’s happening in Chicago,” she continued.

Noem, a former governor of South Dakota, argued that Pritzker should be fighting for his people instead of the president, suggesting that it “seems like it’s more about Gov. Pritzker’s ego, now, rather than actually protecting his people.”

“If he has one murder in the city of Chicago, he should be calling President Trump and saying, ‘What’s your ideas? What can we do?’” Noem added.

“They don’t even honor our detainers in Chicago. They don’t go out there and work with us to make sure we’re bringing people to justice. And instead, he goes on TV and he attacks me when we’re doing exactly what those people need. They need someone to help them get the dangerous criminals off their streets.”

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Chicago Mayor Going To War With Trump Over Possible Immigration Crackdown

Leftists in sanctuary cities and states are scrambling to stop Donald Trump’s deportation efforts, but is there anything they can realistically do to interfere with operations to remove illegal aliens from the US?  Short of going to war with the federal government and a majority of the American public, the answer is no.    

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson announced he is taking steps to fight President Donald Trump’s expected immigration crackdown and potential National Guard deployment in the Chicago area.  Johnson signed the “Protecting Chicago” executive order on Saturday as the Trump administration prepares to conduct a major immigration enforcement operation, which could start as soon as next week.

Johnson had a glassy, wide-eyed look of fear as he signed his executive order, indicating that the far-left politician is probably aware that if he takes his interference too far he might end up in handcuffs just like the estimated 550,000 illegal migrants currently residing in Chicago. 

Johnson’s order prevents any cooperation between local law enforcement and federal agents on the ground.  It demands that federal agents operate without masks and that they display their names and badge numbers (an act that would expose them and their families to possible retribution by leftist activists).  The mayor also directed an army of lawyers working for the city to pursue all legal and legislative avenues to bog down White House operations in the courts. 

Johnson has recently called for direct interference against ICE arrests and any National Guard presence by local activist groups.

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Democrat VA Gubernatorial Candidate Abigail Spanberger Wants to Turn Virginia Into a Sanctuary State for Illegal Aliens

Abigail Spanberger, the Democrat candidate for governor of Virginia, is vowing to turn the commonwealth into a sanctuary state by reversing the immigration policies put in place by the current governor, Republican Glenn Youngkin.

Spanberger has also made it clear that she is an ally to the transgender agenda, and would allow boys in girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms.

On nearly every issue, Spanberger embraces the unpopular positions of the far left that the majority of the country rejected in the 2024 election.

Spanberger made her comments about immigration in an interview with the Virginia Mercury:

Spanberger vows to scrap Youngkin’s immigration order if elected governor

Democratic nominee for governor Abigail Spanberger says one of her first acts if elected would be to undo Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s February directive requiring Virginia law enforcement to help carry out federal immigration crackdowns — a policy she argues wastes local resources and undermines community trust.

“I would rescind his executive order, yes,” Spanberger told The Mercury in a lengthy policy interview earlier this month, referring to Youngkin’s Executive Order 47 issued in February. The order gave state police and corrections officers authority to perform certain immigration duties and also urged local jails to fully cooperate with federal deportation operations.

The governor said at the time the measure was meant to keep “dangerous criminal illegal immigrants” off Virginia’s streets. Spanberger countered that Youngkin’s approach illustrates how immigration enforcement can pull local agencies away from their core responsibilities while pushing state agencies into federal civil enforcement.

“Our immigration system is absolutely broken,” she said. “The idea that we would take local police officers or local sheriff’s deputies in amid all the things that they have to do, like community policing or staffing our jails or investigating real crimes, so that they can go and tear families apart … that is a misuse of those resources.”

Spanberger has been leading her Republican opponent Winsome Earle-Sears, the current Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, for weeks but Sears has rapidly closed the polling gap just within the last ten days. The race is now nearly tied.

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San Francisco Judge Forces Trump To Keep Funding Sanctuary Cities

A federal judge in San Francisco ruled on Friday that the Trump administration cannot suspend funding to 34 ‘sanctuary’ cities which limit or refuse cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

US District Judge William Orrick  – a rich kid lawyer appointed by former President Barack Obama to the US District Court for the Northern District of California – ordered the extension of a preliminary injunction barring the administration from blocking funding or placing conditions on federal  funding for those jurisdictions. Orrick also prevented the administration from imposing immigration-related conditions on two particular grant programs. 

The Trump administration initially tried to block funding to dozens of cities and counties over sanctuary city policies – cutting off their Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grants due to noncompliance with federal immigration enforcement. 

The protected cities include; Boston, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, Los Angeles, Albuquerque, Baltimore, San Jose, San Diego and others – while major counties covered include Multnomah County in Oregon, which encompasses Portland; Allegheny County in Pennsylvania, which encompasses Pittsburgh; and Hennepin County in Minnesota, which encompasses Minneapolis, the Epoch Times reports, nothing further; 

The Trump administration has ratcheted up pressure on sanctuary communities as it seeks to make good on President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to remove millions of people who are in the country illegally.

One executive order issued by Trump directs Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to withhold federal money from sanctuary jurisdictions. Another order directs every federal agency to ensure that payments to state and local governments do not “abet so-called ‘sanctuary’ policies that seek to shield illegal aliens from deportation.”

In May, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a list of more than 500 “sanctuary jurisdictions” and said that all of those municipalities and counties would be sent a formal notification deeming them to be noncompliant with the Trump administration’s orders. Those officials would also be informed by DHS on whether they were said to be in violation of any federal laws.

Orrick said in his order that the administration’s decisions to withhold federal funding in those jurisdictions are a “coercive threat” that he deemed to be “unconstitutional.”

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First Human Case Of Flesh-Eating Screwworm Detected In Sanctuary State Of Maryland 

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reported the first human case of travel-associated New World screwworm in Maryland after a “patient” returned from El Salvador, according to Reuters, citing HHS spokesman Andrew G. Nixon. Details about the patient’s immigration status were not released, though it’s worth noting that Maryland is a far-left Democratic Party stronghold and a sanctuary state.

Screwworms have been moving north from Central America through Mexico since 2023, with a new case identified in July about 400 miles south of the U.S. border in Veracruz. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) response was to shut down cross-border activity of cattle ports of entry into the U.S. to mitigate the biosecurity threat.  

More details from the Reuters report:

  • HHS reported the first human case of travel-associated New World screwworm in the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the parasite on August 4 in a patient returning from El Salvador.
  • Industry sources earlier told Reuters the patient had traveled from Guatemala, and Beef Alliance emails circulated this version to livestock stakeholders. HHS did not clarify the discrepancy.
  • HHS says the risk to U.S. public health is very low. No U.S. animal cases have been reported this year.

For humans, screwworm infestations are survivable with treatment, but this is the first U.S. case that has sent alarm bells across public health officials and the cattle industry. Left untreated, these parasites can kill hosts, such as cattle, wildlife, and pets. 

Here is USDA’s response so far:

  • Sterile fly facility: USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins recently announced plans for a new sterile fly facility in Texas (Moore Air Force Base), modeled on past eradication campaigns. The facility will take 2–3 years to build.
  • Mexico is also building a $51 million sterile fly plant in the south. Currently, only one plant exists (Panama City), producing 100 million sterile flies weekly – but 500 million are needed to push infestations back to the Darien Gap.

USDA estimates that a Texas screwworm outbreak could devastate the cattle industry, inflicting $1.8 billion in losses from livestock deaths, labor, and treatment costs. The biothreat comes at a time when the nation’s cattle herd is the smallest in 70 years, beef prices are at record highs, and feedlot margins remain extremely tight.

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Obama Judge Shields Sanctuary Cities From Donald Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Efforts

A federal judge ruled on Friday that the Trump administration cannot cut funding to 34 cities and counties in response to sanctuary policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

U.S. District Judge William Orrick, who previously issued an order protecting more than a dozen other jurisdictions, extended a preliminary injunction blocking the administration from pulling federal money or attaching immigration-related conditions to its use.

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