Photo: Alamy
White House border czar Tom Homan said this week that ending sanctuary city policies nationwide would help save lives by allowing federal authorities to more easily remove violent offenders from the country.
Homan made the comments following the fatal shooting of Loyola University Chicago student Sheridan Gorman, whose killing has intensified political debate over immigration enforcement and sanctuary policies.
“President Trump wants to take sanctuary cities on, and we’re going to continue taking them on. We[‘ve] got to end sanctuary city policies, because doing so will save thousands, thousands of lives,” Homan said in an interview with NewsNation.
Sanctuary jurisdictions are local or state governments that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement authorities. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, more than a dozen states and numerous major U.S. cities have adopted some form of sanctuary policy.
The debate intensified after the death of Gorman, an 18-year-old Loyola University freshman who was fatally shot near the school’s Chicago campus. Authorities arrested a 25-year-old Venezuelan migrant in connection with the killing.
“She was exactly where she should have been — close to campus, surrounded by friends, living her life,” her family shared in a statement.
“What happened to Sheridan cannot be reduced to the idea of someone being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” the statement continued. “This is not an abstraction. This is the loss of a daughter. The loss of a sister. The loss of a future filled with milestones that will now never come. Our family is forever changed.”
The case has sparked a broader national argument over immigration policy. Homan has previously pressed sanctuary jurisdictions to cooperate with federal enforcement efforts. Earlier this year, federal authorities secured cooperation from Minnesota officials following months of enforcement activity in Minneapolis and several deadly confrontations involving federal agents and protesters.