Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) was recently on MSNBC’s PoliticsNation when he told host Al Sharpton that the Trump administration wanted to make sanctuary cities into “fugitive slave catchers” by withholding federal funding from such cities. Baraka made a point that he would defy they law when it came to illegal immigration.
Here’s a look at the exchange:
SHARPTON: The President — let me start with sanctuary cities. I want to get into the budget and how it affects inner cities, but the president has gone out of his way, Attorney General Jeff Sessions saying they — actually threatened mayors like you of sanctuary cities off I turning off certain funding. Why are they targeting and how do you respond?
BARAKA: Well, I think that them targeting sanctuary cities is a way for them to tell mayors and other folks around the country, one, that they`re sticking to what I think is a very unconstitutional an un-American policy and trying to intimidate us into being what I`ve called fugitive slave catchers, to run around and do their bidding in our cities. And if we refuse to do that, then it makes it difficult for them to continue their policy because they don`t have the resources to kind of run down all the undocumented residents locally.
Sharpton didn't object, he repeated it in a way:
SHARPTON: What happens if they start cutting your federal funds because you won`t break rank and do what you said, a fugitive slave kind of —
BARAKA: Well, there`s some entitlement funds that most cities get CDBG [Community Development Block Grant] dollars, home funds, dollars for federally qualified health care centers. Opportunities for us to fixing neighborhoods that had been run down for a very long time. This is going to probably hurt the most vulnerable in our community, which I think is terrible, but we have to find creative ways to adjust. The irony of it is his budget says he`s going to cut the money anyway.
After hearing that Baraka vowed to defy federal immigration law, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke lambasted Mayor Baraka and his promise to protect illegal immigrants in the city of Newark: “I've heard a lot of stupid things [but] comparing fugitive slaves to illegal immigrants is the gold standard of stupidity…Count on the Left to talk crazy, to talk outrageous, to try to add fuel to this thing…”
