https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWg675vVLXA

Wednesday night, Sen. Pat Toomey went on The O’Reilly Factor discussing sanctuary cities, a policy that has been a hot topic in the Pennsylvania Senate race and one that Toomey has spoken about with O’Reilly before.

He discussed the case of Ramone Aguirre-Ochoa, an illegal immigrant from Honduras, who was deported in 2009 but came back to Philadelphia.

After facing local criminal charges in 2014 over another incident, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), made a detainer request to Philadelphia authorities to hold Aguirre-Ochoa until a federal agent could pick him up and deport him. Philadelphia denied the request after the criminal charges were dropped and he was set free. He was arrested again in July, accused of raping a 13-year old child.

“The police department, their hands were tied by a very bad policy that forbids them from cooperating with federal immigration officials,” said Sen. Toomey. “It’s terrible, and it’s a security risk for all of us.”

Pat Toomey claimed that he hasn’t met a single police officer that supports sanctuary city policies. He also pointed out that there is bipartisanship opposition citing that former  Mayor Michael Nutter rescinded the policy before the current mayor, Jim Kenney, reinstated it.

Sen. Toomey has proposed legislation which would withhold congressional funding from sanctuary cities, such as Philadelphia, until they repeal sanctuary city policies. The bill would also enforce “stiff” statutory minimums on illegal immigrants who have committed violent crimes. The bill was entitled “Kate’s Law”, named after Kate Steinle, but failed to get the 60 vote minimum to begin debate on the issue.