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Lodge 7 President Graham joins law enforcement leaders, elected officials and other dignitaries at the White House to discuss the dangers of sanctuary cities
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
n PHOTOS COURTESY OF WH.GOV
President Trump looked Chicago Lodge 7 President Kevin Graham decisively in the eyes and confirmed, “Frankly, what’s happening in Chicago is ridiculous. It should never happen.”
Graham had just expounded on the threats and dangers of policing in a sanctuary city like Chicago to President Trump. Sitting in the Roosevelt Room at the White House, Graham joined a knights-of-the-roundtable-like gathering that the president convened to address the increasing menace sanctu- ary cites have become by providing havens for repeat-offender criminal aliens.
Graham and National FOP President Chuck Canterbury led the law enforcement representation at this meeting, which also featured U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Homeland Secu- rity Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, members of Congress, state’s attorneys and other dignitaries. The gathering served to edu- cate invited media about how sanctuary cities inhibit local and federal law enforcement officers, and by inviting Graham to participate, the president recognized that this challenge is as calamitous in Chicago as any other city in the U.S.
“My 17,000 members I represent as the FOP president are not concerned with somebody coming here for a better life,” Gra- ham stated during his turn to comment. “But they certainly are concerned with somebody coming here to be habitual crimi-
28 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ APRIL 2018
Chicago Lodge 7 President Kevin Graham represented the FOP at a meeting with President Trump at the White House to discuss the dangers of sanctuary cities.
Members of Congress, attorneys general from several states, Attorney Gen- eral Jeff Sessions, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and law en- forcement leaders joined the president at the meeting.
nal offenders, that their entire career is set up to undermine the legal system and put officers in harm’s way. Our members are out there every day in Chicago. It’s a dangerous place, and certainly we would like to be able work closer with our federal authorities.”
As the president remarked about the gang members, preda- tors, rapists, killers and a lot of bad people who are illegal aliens taking refuge under the legal protection of sanctuary cities, he articulated the true mission of this meeting. The federal gov- ernment, working with local law enforcement, must find a way