On Friday night, NewsNation's On Balance host Leland Vittert gave Ohio Rep. Greg Landsman (D) an ultimatum on immigration and customs enforcement: would he get rid of sanctuary cities if it meant stopping ICE raids on places like Home Depot? Unsurprisingly, Landsman couldn’t accurately depict what a sanctuary city was, incredibly he couldn't even say they exist.
Vittert started by asking about violent rhetoric and actions taken against ICE, which led to this Landsman response:
I know that there are some folks who have said some pretty inappropriate, unhelpful things. But the vast majority of my colleagues I think are where I am, or at least what I’ve heard is, look, don’t engage ICE don’t mess with law enforcement. But this is chaotic, we’re seeing these chaotic raids of folks coming into communities with masks on and, you know, there are some legitimate questions. And I don’t think the American people like chaos, it’s not good policy, it’s terrible politics and that's what they see.
He also claimed that the American people don’t like chaos, and thus bad politics. It hardly holds up when you look at the impediment of ICE operations around the country by far-left actors.
The ant-ICE rhetoric from his constituents and members of the far-left are exactly what incited a lot of this violence in the first place.
Vittert then gave the ultimatum to Landsman: “Would you be in favor of something that goes like this? In return for the end of raids on Home Depots and other places like that, that Democrats should say we are willing to end sanctuary cities once and for all?”
Instead of answering, Landsman chose the interesting route of claiming to not know what sanctuary city meant:
LANDSMAN: Well, I don’t know what sanctuary cities means. Right? So, at the moment my understanding is based on what we do here is that the local law enforcement does local law enforcement and I don’t want to pull our cops off the beat and focusing on anything other than keeping people safe. So, I think you have to get a definition in a way that—
VITTERT: Sanctuary cities means honoring ICE detainers.
LANDSMAN: I don’t know — what do you — that’s not what it — I’m very confused by what is honoring ICE detainers mean?
It’s ironic because Cincinnati, the city which makes up most of his district, symbolically considered themselves a sanctuary city in 2017. Sanctuary cities essentially call for the removal of any of the city's resources or information to go towards the arrest of illegal aliens.
These cities put in place policies that don’t honor ICE detainers, allowing them to deny a hold on individuals for potential deportation after their release from criminal custody.
Vittert couldn’t believe it:
VITTERS: It means when ICE says we don’t want someone released from jail because they have a final deportation order, even if they’ve been arrested for a misdemeanor, that that detainer is honored because sanctuary cities don’t honor ICE detainers.
LANDSMAN: I don’t think that’s true.
Just one example of what Landsman claimed to not be true came in January, 2018 when a Mexican national in Los Angeles was arrested for possessing a controlled substance. Upon release, ICE issued a detainer but L.A. 's sanctuary city policy denied it. That man was subsequently arrested the next month for murder.
Landsman tried to explain his version of sanctuary cities to the audience:
I think most people understand it the way I do, which is, local law enforcement – the federal law enforcement, in this case federal immigration officials, they do immigration work and local law enforcement they do the policing work in the cities and not rounding up people. I think that's all it means.
The big flaw in his assessment comes when you see government officials impeding or actively calling for impediment in ICE arrests. These cities aren't simply saying their local enforcement will do their own thing, but actively defy federal law.
The full transcript is below. Click "expand" to view:
NewsNation’s On Balance
July 11, 2024
9:52:03 p.m. Eastern(…)
LELAND VITTERT: Do you worry that the rhetoric from Democrats, largely speaking, about ICE and how terrible ICE is, ICE is the Gestapo, ICE must be stopped, there must be protests. At some point we're gonna go from people shooting at ICE, which they did in this situation, and throwing rocks, to an ICE officer getting killed and Democrats are going to be the ones who, what? Fanned the flames of a lot of these protests.
REP. GREG LANDSMAN (D-OH): Yeah, I mean, I know that there are some folks who have said some pretty inappropriate, unhelpful things. But the vast majority of my colleagues I think are where I am, or at least what I’ve heard is, look, don’t engage ICE don’t mess with law enforcement. But this is chaotic, we’re seeing these chaotic raids of folks coming into communities with masks on and, you know, there are some legitimate questions. And I don’t think the American people like chaos, it’s not good policy, it’s terrible politics and that's what they see.
VITTERT: Would you be in favor of something that goes like this? In return for the end of raids on Home Depots and other places like that, that Democrats should say we are willing to end sanctuary cities once and for all?
LANDSMAN: Well, I don’t know what sanctuary cities means. Right? So, at the moment my understanding is based on what we do here is that the local law enforcement does local law enforcement and I don’t want to pull our cops off the beat and focusing on anything other than keeping people safe. So, I think you have to get a definition in a way that—
VITTERT: Sanctuary cities means honoring ICE detainers.
LANDSMAN: I don’t know — what do you — that’s not what it — I’m very confused by what is honoring ICE detainers mean?
VITTERS: It means when ICE says we don’t want someone released from jail because they have a final deportation order, even if they’ve been arrested for a misdemeanor, that that detainer is honored because sanctuary cities don’t honor ICE detainers.
LANDSMAN: I don’t think that’s true.
VITTERT: Ok.
LANDSMAN: I think most people understand it the way I do, which is, local law enforcement – the federal law enforcement, in this case federal immigration officials, they do immigration work and local law enforcement they do the policing work in the cities and not rounding up people. I think that's all it means.
VITTERT: Got it.
