What Does ‘Sanctuary’ Really Mean?

One of the great successes among many for the anti-ICE propagandists is convincing people that “sanctuary city” means that high-minded local officials are protecting José, Maria, and Jesus from from the roaming bands of Gestapo agents who want to toss them into Supermax prisons before executing them with extreme prejudice. 

Actually, what “sanctuary” localities do is not cooperate in any way with ICE or Border Patrol, meaning that they let illegal alien criminals get away with repeated violations of the law. In fact, they often go out of their way to shield the worst of the worst from being picked up by immigration officials. 

Tom Homan has repeatedly said that ICE would not be surging anywhere if local officials would just hand over criminals they have in custody. Instead of releasing them into the community to offend again, the arrests can take place without muss or fuss, and especially without the danger of injury to anybody, including local citizens. 

Sanctuary jurisdictions say “No,” and will go to extraordinary lengths to ensure that ICE cannot easily pick up criminal aliens. 

In 2011 he attacked, strangled, & tried to rape a woman. A bystander saved is the only reason she’s alive. Yet not only is he still in the US despite a deportation order, but NYC keeps releasing him instantly for his additional arrests, to help him evade the deportation order https://t.co/2hi1QaLe1n

— Sean Fitzgerald (Actual Justice Warrior) (@IamSean90) February 1, 2026

Last year, I was following Mayor Wu’s Boston with one eye, noting that Homeland Security was having to track down rapists and sex offenders who were sneaked out of Boston prisons by people in the criminal justice system, and released into the community. 

Then, of course, we are all familiar with the cases of judges sneaking illegal aliens out of their courtrooms or impeding ICE in other ways. There appears to be a legal immunity that applies to illegal aliens. Beat your wife? Well, you are a victim, so no foul. And so on. 

Not even being a murderous rapist is enough to get you on their naughty list. 

An alleged crack-smoking, sexual-predator migrant wanted by ICE was allowed to flee through a back door of a Manhattan courthouse — infuriating federal agents, The Post has learned.

Gerardo Miguel Mora, 45, was arrested Thursday for shoplifting and possession of stolen property after allegedly snatching $130 in items from an H&M display case in Midtown that day, court records show.

Mora, whose country of origin was not disclosed, was collared on the Upper West Side on Jan. 7 for possession of alleged crack cocaine, according to a criminal complaint. That case is pending in court.

In 2011, Mora was busted for attempted rape and strangulation after he allegedly followed a 21-year-old woman home in Midtown, choked her and tried to remove her clothes, police sources said.

He was stopped by a bystander who heard the woman’s cries and came to her aid, holding Mora down until cops arrived, the sources said. 

He was presumably deported after that, and was off the radar for 12 years. But in 2023 he was back in the US and arrested for showing a false ID.

Federal authorities had been looking for Mora on a criminal arrest warrant under a section of the US code that concerns “reentry of removed aliens,” law enforcement sources said.

The judge had been informed that a legal detainer had been put on him and that ICE was outside the courtroom waiting to pick him up. 

That’s when she had him taken out the back door. 

But on Thursday in a court hearing on desk appearance tickets, the judge let Mora waltz out of the courtroom, sources said.

The shoplifting charge itself was not bail eligible, but Judge Sheridan Jack-Browne, a Democrat who won a special election last year in Brooklyn, would have had the federal arrest warrant, two sources told The Post.

The warrant is actually put in a folder for the judge to peruse on the bench.

“Everything was sent over” to the courthouse by ICE, a federal law enforcement source said.

But instead of handing him over to waiting ICE agents, Mora was allowed to simply slip out the back door of Manhattan Criminal Court, law enforcement sources said.

“They refused to hand him over,” the irate fed said. “They let him out the back to avoid ICE.”

Sanctuary advocates argue that federal law enforcement can’t force them to cooperate, which is true in some cases and not in others. But even if you support the principle of non-cooperation, why does anybody support impeding the removal of people who are clearly, unambiguously, actively dangerous to others?

This isn’t even noncooperation; it is obstruction of federal law enforcement, solely for the purpose of helping criminal illegal aliens escape. 

You won’t find these stories in Pravda. You are fed lies about “Bait Boy” instead. It is relentless, shameless propaganda. 

Editor’s note: If we thought our job in pushing back against the Academia/media/Democrat censorship complex was over with the election, think again. This is going to be a long fight. If you want to join the conversation in the comments — and support independent platforms — why not join our VIP Membership program? Choose VIP to support Hot Air and access our premium content, VIP Gold to extend your access to all Townhall Media platforms and participate in this show, or VIP Platinum to get access to even more content and discounts on merchandise. Use the promo code FIGHT to join or to upgrade your existing membership level today, and get 60% off!