Fox News’ Bill O’Rielly has turned a national spotlight on Virginia Beach, Virginia, following the dispicable murders of two teenage girls at the hands of illegal immigrant Alfredo Ramos. Ramos was driving in a drunken stupor when he slammed into the rear of the girls’ car while they were stopped at a light. As it turns out, Ramos had been arrested for drunk driving on three seperate occasions prior to the murder, so the question becomes, why was he still in the U.S. and why was he still driving.
The answer is that he was still in the U.S. because, as O’Rielly claims, Virginia Beach is a sanctuary city, and he was still driving because a little-known but key component of sanctuary policy is that illegals are not prosecuted for misdemeanors and even some felonies. The claim by Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf that her city is not a sanctuary city is somewhat deceitful. There has been no official public declaration as other cities have done, but the police have been directed to take a “hands-off” stance towards illegals. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of cities across the country that have adopted the same hands-off policies as Virginia Beach.
Here in Utah, for example, Salt Lake City and Provo have officially declared themselves sanctuary cities, but pretty much every other city in Utah adheres to the same policies. In Park City, illegals who are apprehended for criminal activity are routinely released with not so much as a slap on the wrist. The local paper recently reported that police stopped a vehicle containing three illegals and that the officer spotted marijuana and a hand gun on the driver’s floor. All three were released on the spot, a consideration that ordinary citizens would not get.
The real danger of sanctuary policies is that they give illegals a free pass to conduct all sorts of criminal activity knowing they will not face the same penalties as you or I.