SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori: Busing illegal immigrants to Seattle is brilliant, but dangerous

Apr 16, 2019, 3:28 PM

bob ferguson, busing illegal immigrants...

Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson announce Washington is suing the Trump administration over its practice of separating children from families at the US-Mexico border. (Washington Governor's Office)

(Washington Governor's Office)

A lot of people thought it was just another random, unsubstantiated Trump tweet when a few days ago, the president said that he has looked into busing illegal immigrants to Seattle, San Francisco, L.A., New York City, and the other self-declared sanctuary cities in our nation.

But there is evidence that he and the Department of Homeland Security really are looking into carrying out this plan of busing illegal immigrants to us. We could have hundreds of illegal immigrants bused into Seattle if Trump carries out this plan.

Jay Inslee has made Washington a de facto sanctuary state, and the legislators are trying to do it officially with a bill this session to declare our entire state sanctuary.

RELATED: Jenny Durkan cares more about illegal immigrants than homeless citizens

“We will welcome them to the State of Washington, because we have found these folks frequently become pillars of our community,” Inslee said.

He didn’t mention that an illegal immigrant murdered a Kittitas County Deputy Ryan Thompson last month. He didn’t mention the ride-share rape suspect, who pretended to be a woman’s Uber driver and raped her when she was in his car. ICE has confirmed that this man, Israel Ramos Islas — who police believe is connected to other ride-share impostor cases in the area — is an illegal immigrant.

So just in the last few months, we have an illegal immigrant who has murdered a police officer and another who raped one woman, and may have attempted to rape others. Yes, such pillars of our society.

Here’s the thing — I think the Trump plan, from a political standpoint, is somewhat brilliant. Jenny Durkan is completely over a barrel. She says that we love being a sanctuary city, but then she is also furious at the Trump administration for “punishing his political enemies,” as she put in her Washington Post op-ed this past weekend. You can’t have it both ways. How is it “punishing” us to send these illegal immigrants to Seattle if they are as great for the community as you always say?

Now we see that the Democrats are completely twisted up like a pretzel. They embrace sanctuary for purely political reasons, but now that they’re confronted with the reality of hundreds of illegal immigrants being bused into their cities and states, they understand that we just can’t handle that.

Here’s the problem with all of this. What if someone on one of those buses does rape or kill someone in Seattle or San Francisco? Who is that on? Is it on Durkan and Inslee for embracing sanctuary? Or is it on Trump for sending the illegal immigrants to those sanctuary places? And while I see some political brilliance in exposing the hypocrisy and stupidity of sanctuary, it would be a disaster for President Trump if one of them does commit a crime. The national media would use that as a very powerful weapon.

I think it’s on Inslee and Durkan, but I know how the media works. As we get more indication today that we are a step closer to this plan of busing illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities, it could prove to be explosive.

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Dori: Busing illegal immigrants to Seattle is brilliant, but dangerous