Mayor Murray pursues ‘moral’ cause but dodges immigration question

After Seattle Mayor Ed Murray announced that the city is suing the Trump administration over its sanctuary city executive order on Wednesday, he refused to answer one simple question.

Related: Seattle sues Trump, Sessions and Homeland Security over sanctuary cities

“Do you think the federal government should deport illegal criminals who commit felonies?” Jason Rantz asked the mayor.

“I believe they absolutely have the right to, yes,” Murray told KIRO Radio’s Jason and Burns Show. He repeated the same line when prompted a second time.

Murray vs. the feds

The mayor said the Seattle Police Department is not breaking federal law by not asking people their immigration status.

“We don’t collect data,” Murray said. “We don’t ask people their status. If they call (911) because they are victims to a crime, if they call because they are witnesses to a crime, if they go to our schools, we don’t ask them their status.”

“Now if someone commits a felony, period, they are going to end up going to jail and that information will become available to the federal government through the county and state system,” he said. “That is a very different thing from what they’ve tried to infer; that we are somehow protecting criminals. People break the law, whether you have documents or don’t have documents, you are going to be treated the same.”

“We have to do what we believe is right, and what we believe is moral,” Murray said. “And to not have stood up to them would have been a mistake and would have continued to create chaos. If that puts me or the city in their whatever, so be it.”

Mayor Murray also reassured those worried about the taxpayer’s burden.

“It’s a pro bono case,” he said. “The law firm in Washington D.C. that has had numerous cases before the United States Supreme Court is taking this on pro bono, or for free.”

That firm is Mayer Brown. And while the pro bono work won’t cost the city anything, there is city staff time and work that will go into the effort.

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