Trump blasts sanctuary cities in weekly address: ‘They’re no good’

President Trump used his weekly address on Saturday to blast so-called “sanctuary cities” that refuse to share information about undocumented immigrants in custody with federal authorities.

In the short video posted to the president’s social media accounts, Trump opened by talking about the “preventable” death of Kate Steinle, a woman shot to death on the San Francisco pier in 2015.

“Help me, Dad. Those were the last words spoken by Kate Steinle as she lay dying on a San Francisco pier – a precious young American woman killed in the prime of her life,” Trump said.

“Last week, in a final injustice, Kate’s killer was acquitted on all of the most serious charges,” Trump said. “Yet one more reason Americans are so upset by sanctuary cities and open border politicians who shield criminal aliens from federal law enforcement and all of the problems involved with the whole concept of a sanctuary city.”

“They’re no good,” he added.

{mosads}

Trump went on to rip congressional Democrats for demanding a fix for undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children as part of a year-end deal to fund the government, a provision that Trump called “amnesty” in the video.

DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, was an Obama-era policy that shielded from deportation undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. Trump announced in September that he would rescind the program.

“Unfortunately, Democrats in Congress not only oppose our efforts to stop illegal immigration and crack down on Sanctuary Cities – now they are demanding amnesty as a condition for funding the government, holding troop funding hostage and putting our national security at risk,” Trump said. “We cannot allow it.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has taken a hard stance on DACA protections in recent days, vowing that Congress would not leave Washington, D.C., until recipients of the program were protected by congressional action.

“We will not leave here without a DACA fix,” Pelosi said Thursday.