Respect Washington founder: Politicians protect illegal immigrants, increase crime

Politicians in the Puget Sound area do everything within their power to cover up the extent of crimes committed by illegal immigrants, according to Craig Keller, founder of anti-illegal immigration advocacy group Respect Washington.

Speaking to KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson, Keller pointed out that many opponents of immigration reform are quick to call people who are looking for information about a crime suspect’s immigration status “racists.”

“What that does is that shuts down the conversation,” Keller said. “We don’t want to shut down the conversation, we want to get to the truth.”

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Keller called crimes in the area an “ongoing nightmare movie that keeps replaying and replaying and replaying in King County,” pointing out the number of spine-chilling murders that have been committed by illegal immigrants in recent years. Four months after the murder of two teenage girls in Burien this spring, he said, the murderers have not been apprehended.

The victims of all of these crimes, Keller said, are not remembered, but are “put in the dustbin of history.”

“These families have been permanently separated from their loved ones by people’s irresponsible, drug-fueled and evil acts committed by people who should not even have been in these United States,” Keller said.

It used to be possible to go to the King County Jail Registry to find if an inmate had an ICE detainer, but the King County Council outlawed this in 2013. Now, Keller said, it is virtually impossible to find out if a person who committed a crime was, or was not, in the country illegally.

Worse, Keller said, hard-working law enforcement officers are being “handcuffed and hampered by the politicians.”

“It’s because of the political objectives that Democrats have, some Republicans have, and they would be extremely embarrassed and would be raced out of office on a rail if the facts were known,” he said.