Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg attacked sanctuary cities on MSNBC Tuesday morning, denouncing the idea of cities effectively nullifying federal law.
“What would you do about this issue of sanctuary cities, about the cities who are saying we’re not going to enforce federal law?” economic analyst Steven Rattner asked Bloomberg on “Morning Joe.”
“You cannot, Steve, have everybody be deciding which laws they obey,” the former mayor bluntly declared. “The law is the law.”
Rather than changing or subverting federal law — especially on immigration, the most frequent target of “sanctuary cities” — Bloomberg insisted that people should try to change the law.
“You should obey the law, and if you don’t like the law, get your legislative body to change the law,” the former mayor said. “But society breaks down if we can all decide what’s right and what’s wrong. You can’t do that. We have a system of laws, [you] have to live with it.”
The Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent made a solid point, echoing PJ Media’s own Victor Davis Hanson. Sanctuary cities, by attempting to nullify federal law, are following the lead of the Confederacy. This does not mean supporting immigrants is akin to supporting slavery, but rather that the idea of cities rejecting federal authority is akin to states rejecting federal leadership, as they did in the Civil War.
Unfortunately for the rule of law, the current mayor of New York is Bill de Blasio, an advocate of sanctuary cities who led the charge to make the Big Apple one of them. After the Trump administration threatened to cut federal funding to sanctuary cities (a fitting response), de Blasio said he would challenge that decision in court.
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