By Illinois Review
While violent and dangerous criminals, including individuals on the terrorism watch list are crossing into the U.S. through our open southern border – Democratic U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen (IL-17) is making the case that closing the southern border would shut down the economy in a matter of days.
In an interview with Fox18 in the Quad Cities, Sorensen said,
“The economy of the United States would end in 3 days. We have 3 days of what we need in the United States, so if we just shut down the entire southern border, it would be to the detriment of our country.”
The crisis on the southern border – a crisis that was created under the Biden administration, is raising legitimate national security concerns as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection are reporting that an estimated 151 individuals on the FBI’s terror watch list have been caught trying to cross into the United States illegally in 2023 – representing an all time high along the southern border as Democratic politicians scramble to address the migrant crisis now plaguing the city of Chicago and the western suburbs.
Since the terrorist attack in Israel on October 7th, Republican lawmakers in Washington have sounded the alarm that President Biden’s open border policy is leaving the U.S. vulnerable to another attack – this time on U.S. soil. Some lawmakers are even alleging the possibility of Hamas terrorists and other cells entering the U.S. through the wide open southern border. National security experts on both sides of the aisle acknowledge the safety concerns with so many crossing into the country illegally.
Over the last year, streams of buses carrying illegals were dropping people off all over Chicago and the suburbs day and night, straining resources and forcing city and state officials to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to address the surge. It’s estimated that nearly 30,000 migrants have arrived in Chicago in the last year alone, costing taxpayers more than $400 million to feed, clothe and house them, as legal residents struggle to put food on the table.
In February, a Rockford car salesman was found dead in Chicago after taking customers out on a test drive – and less than two months later, a suspect was finally arrested and charged with his murder. But records reveal that the killer was out on pretrial release for two other cases, proving the point made by public safety advocates and Republicans across the state that cashless bail puts dangerous criminals where they don’t belong: back out on the streets to commit even more crimes.
In 2022, Sorensen campaigned alongside Democrat Illinois State Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, who defended the controversial policy, arguing that the “right wing extremist MAGA propaganda” was creating false narratives about cashless bail and she found the rhetoric offensive. Gordon-Booth, who spoke at a fundraiser for Sorensen alongside Democrat Illinois State Sen. Dave Koehler, joined forces to attack Republicans for “peddling fear” about the controversial policy.
“All of the sudden, the right wing is peddling fear. Fear is a very big motivator. You scare everybody into thinking we’re letting out criminals willy-nilly. That’s not true,” said Koehler.
Sorensen is also supported by Equality Illinois, who proclaimed last year that “The end of cash bail in IL will begin to advance meaningful public safety, not wealth.” Just after the November election in 2022, Equality Illinois issued a statement congratulating the Congressman-elect on his victory, saying, “We look forward to advancing justice with U.S. Rep. Sorensen.”
Rep. Sorensen faces Republican Joseph McGraw, a former judge, in the November general election.
