Illinois Senator Slams Jeff Sessions Over Chicago Gun Violence: ‘You’re Not Helping’

During Jeff Sessions’ hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee,  Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) had a tense exchange with the AG over gun violence in Chicago and the Justice Department’s policies on undocumented immigrants.

While Sessions has called for local law enforcement to kill their “sanctuary city” policies or risk losing federal funds, Durbin argued that these threats from the administration are only hurting Chicago — a city already suffering from a tremendous amount of gun violence.

He also claimed that Sessions’ slashing of funds is having a harmful impact on community policing in the city.

“So far this year 3,000 people have been injured by gunshot in the city of Chicago,” said Durbin. “Undocumented immigrants are not driving violence in Chicago. That’s why I want our officers focused on community policing and not trying to be immigration police,” he continued.

Sessions defended the Trump Administration’s stance on Chicago by saying he is concerned for the “health and morale” of the city’s police department.

“We would like to see that improved. I think the politicians cannot say that if you remove a violent criminal from America that’s illegally in the country and is arrested by the Chicago police and put in the Chicago jail that once they are released they shouldn’t be turned over to ICE officers to be removed from the country,” said Sessions.

Durbin came back at Sessions by claiming federal policies are putting the city in a bind, accusing the him of both slashing federal funding while also criticizing Chicago officials over the city’s violent crime. “You want to cut off federal funds and criticize the murder rate,” said Durbin.

“You want to cut back these funds because you want the city of Chicago to play the role of immigration police on federal, civil laws,” Durbin continued. “Mr. Attorney General: you’re not helping us solve the murder problem in the city of Chicago by taking away these federal funds.”

At the beginning of this year, President Donald Trump tweeted, “If Chicago doesn’t fix the horrible ‘carnage’ going on, … I will send in the Feds!” The federal government has since sent agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to the city — a move the president took credit for.

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