President Trump took aim at the “Radical Left” again late Friday night — asking on Twitter why “others” should be expected to take illegal immigrants into their communities when Democrats don’t want to do the same “in their Sanctuary Cities.”
“If the Radical Left Democrats all of a sudden don’t want the Illegal Migrants in their Sanctuary Cities (no more open arms), why should others be expected to take them into their communities?” Trump tweeted. “Go home and come into our Country legally and through a system of Merit!”
The comments came just hours after the president claimed the US would possibly start dumping illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities across the country. Lawmakers on the left have slammed the move, with New York Congressman Jerry Nadler calling it “morally repugnant.”
“Due to the fact that Democrats are unwilling to change our very dangerous immigration laws, we are indeed, as reported, giving strong considerations to placing Illegal Immigrants in Sanctuary Cities only,” Trump tweeted. “The Radical Left always seems to have an Open Borders, Open Arms policy — so this should make them very happy!”
White House officials and the Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday that the idea was off the table, but Trump keeps insisting that it is not.
“We are giving strong consideration to having people after a 20-day period, because again you are not allowed legally to hold them for more than that, we’ll move them into sanctuary cities,” the president said at an unrelated White House event on Friday.
Nadler wrote on Twitter that he believed Trump’s plan was “probably illegal.”
“What the President is talking about here is spending taxpayer dollars to use immigrant families — mothers, fathers and young children — as pawns for political retribution,” said the House Judiciary chairman.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the move “unworthy of the presidency.”
It’s “disrespectful of the challenges that we face as a county, as a people, to address who we are,” she told reporters. “A nation of immigrants.”