Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Thursday, October 19, 2017.
Durbin confronts Jeff Sessions on his failure to help Chicago solve its gun violence issues
Illinois senator Dick Durbin and U.S. attorney general Jeff Sessions got into a heated discussion over Chicago’s sanctuary city status at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday. Durbin told Sessions that undocumented immigrants are not causing Chicago’s gun violence problems, despite Sessions’ frequent protestations. Sessions has threatened to withhold Department of Justice grants from all sanctuary cities, including Chicago. “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 said. “Mr. Attorney General, you are not helping us solve the murder problem in the City of Chicago by taking away these federal funds. . . . And the superintendent says your pursuit of undocumented immigrants has little or nothing to do with gun violence in Chicago.” Sessions argued back saying, “How does that make the city of Chicago safer when you don’t remove criminals who are illegally in the country?” [Sun-Times]
