Rep. Brian Mast: We Should Not Subsidize Illegal Immigrants by Sending Dollars to Sanctuary Cities

BANDERAS: “So, in ‘Focus’ now, Republican Congressman Brian Mast of Florida, he will chair the House Foreign Affairs Committee in the new Congress. Thank you so much for talking to us.”
MAST: “You’re welcome.”
BANDERAS: “Okay, so what do you say to these sanctuary cities, which are all run by Democrats and counties, if they, in fact, mess with the feds?”
MAST: “I think it goes just beyond law enforcement. It’s no holds barred for all resources, all dollars that go into your city, because the fact of the matter is you are taking tax dollars from all Americans, but endangering all Americans. Whether somebody came in in Arizona and burned somebody alive in New York, you are endangering everybody. So whether it’s dollars that come through the Highway Trust Fund or through the Corps of Engineers to support your ports, or you name it, those dollars should be cut off. We won’t subsidize what you do with illegal immigrants. And let’s make one other point on this. It also goes to the change that will happen with the federal government side of it. We know, under the Biden Administration, you have ICE that will go to local law enforcement agencies and say, ‘Hey, we know they are set for final deportation, but that is not good enough for us to detain them and bring them to the ICE facility,’ and the federal government will tell them, ‘You let them go instead.’ That has to come to an end. It will come to an end under President Trump.”
BANDERAS: “Okay, so the program is called the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program. Essentially, it costs $234 million a year. California gets more than $60 million as part of that, which basically helps keep criminal illegal immigrants behind bars. Why in the world are we spending $60 million a year in California plus whatever assistance they need in sanctuary cities when, quite frankly, if you were to deport all of these illegal immigrants, specifically the criminals behind bars, you already have them in custody, it’s not like you have to go searching for them. I can’t even understand how the Biden Administration let this happen.”
MAST: “They why is simple: because they do support it. Because you had a Speaker Nancy Pelosi and you have a Hakeem Jeffries and you have others that want to go out there and take the resources and say, ‘Listen, you have to have a bleeding heart for these people that entered our country illegally. We have to lodge them and pay their legal fees and pay for their food and pay for their healthcare, we have to pay for their transportation and everything else,’ and they have no remorse over it whatsoever. They would continue these policies were it not for the media showing people being burned alive, showing what happened with Laken Riley, showing what could be the difference between a Trump Administration and a Biden Administration in protecting Americans from this. Otherwise, there would be no pushback whatsoever. So, media gets some credit for this, as well, in bringing it to light.”