CAPEHART: “All right, let’s talk about about immigration. Basically, since the day after the inauguration, we have been seeing ICE operations, ICE raids happening all over the country, starting in Newark. Now they’re happening in in Chicago. Just your initial reaction to what the Trump Administration is doing?”
ESPAILLAT: “Sloppy, if not inhumane. Citizens have been stopped, detained and questioned. A veteran was stopped and questioned. Attempts were made to go into a school, an elementary school. So this is a real sloppy approach to what he tries to implement, this new massive deportation, and we will be monitoring this as we move forward. We will be educating the public as to what their rights are. The public needs to understand what their rights are, and we don’t want to see that kind of heavy-handed approach against American citizens, including a veteran.”
CAPEHART: “You know, the border czar Tom Homan has made it very clear that he’s coming for sanctuary cities. New York City is ‘a sanctuary city.’ How will you protect New Yorkers?”
ESPAILLAT: “Well, I feel very strongly that the concept of a sanctuary city has been misrepresented. You know, people think that perhaps a sanctuary city is one that harbors or cuddles violent criminals. That’s not the case. A sanctuary city is one that protects a woman that is a victim of domestic violence, and she will be able to go to the precinct without having the precinct commander call ICE on her, or a mom that takes her kids to schools, her little boy, her little girl to school, and doesn’t have to fear that the principal will call the authorities on her, or senior citizen that will go to the emergency room, and will be reassured that the nurse is not going to turn them in. It’s a safety net for the most vulnerable in us, in our community. And I think people have misrepresented what a sanctuary city is.”