By: Veronica Kordmany
A 92-year-old Queens woman, who came to the United States from the Dominican Republic, was raped and murdered last month, allegedly by an illegal immigrant. She was revived by her granddaughter, who spoke at the White House one Friday — and slammed New York’s City’s “sanctuary city” policy.
Daria Ortiz, 19, one of victim Maria Fuertes’ grandchildren, spoke at the behest of President Trump during an event focusing on border security with members of the Border Patrol agents union.
“Unfortunately, my grandmother had to be example of why something like this, [these] horrific crimes should never happen,” an emotional Ortiz said in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
“The tragedy is that this could have been avoided had there been no sanctuary law,” she continued. “The system not only failed our family, but they failed our city.”
Trump mentioned the tragedy in his State of the Union Address, and also ripped Gotham’s sanctuary city policy. He assured his audience that Fuertes would still be alive if her alleged assailant, Reeaz Khan— a 21-year-old from Guyana who had been protected from deportation — had been turned over to the feds after earlier busts. Guyana has plead guilty after Fuertes was reportedly found at 2 a.m., on the verge of death, where she died from injuries including a broken spine.
During his speech, Trump explained how this crime had been conducted. “I asked for the criminal to be taken in, but he was released under New York sanctuary laws,” the president said.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is deploying special tactical officers from US Customs and Border Protection to sanctuary cities, including New York, in order to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement with cracking down on illegal immigrants, officials said Friday. This comes after the issue of the jurisdiction law. According to Fox News, “sanctuary jurisdiction forbids local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities when they issue a detainer”
Acting ICE Director Matthew Albence said in a statement that ICE “…is utilizing CBP to supplement enforcement activity in response to the resource challenges stemming from sanctuary city policies.”
“As we have noted for years, in jurisdiction where we are not allowed to assume custody of aliens from jails, our officers are forced to make at-large arrests of criminal aliens who have been released into communities,” said Albence.
Since his State of the Union Address, Trump has become dependent on Congress to pass the legislation that says victims of illegal immigrants should be allowed to sue sanctuary cities and states, to hold criminals responsible.
