FLASHBACK: Trump predicted disaster of sanctuary cities in 2019

Former President Donald J. Trump predicted in 2019 that sanctuary cities would lead to catastrophe. His prediction has since come to fruition as the nation watches Democrat-run sanctuary cities near collapse over an illegal immigration crisis. These sanctuary policies act as a safe haven for illegal immigrants who claim asylum status in order to escape deportation.

Donald Trump, who is the GOP frontrunner in the 2024 presidential election, was adamantly against sanctuary cities for a variety of reasons. In 2019, Trump spoke out against the "insane asylum" policies that illegal immigrants use to rig the system. He warned that these policies create a path for violent criminals to be let loose inside the US, and explained that the majority of illegal immigrants who claim asylum are not in fact refugees fleeing their own countries.

"We're apprehending thousands and thousands of people a day and the law only allows us to hold them, as you know, for 20 days, because of the most ridiculous laws probably we have in this country," said Trump on April 12, 2019.

"Whether it's catch and release, or chain migration, or any of them; the asylum laws are absolutely insane. They come up, in many cases they're rough gang members, in many cases they're people with tremendous crime records, and they're given a statement to read by lawyers that stand there waiting for them," Trump continued.

"Read this statement," said Trump, describing what lawyers direct illegal immigrants to do in order to obtain asylum status.

"And it says, 'I have great fear for my life. I have great fear for being in my country.' Even though in some cases, some of these people are holding their country's flags and waving their country's flags, and then they talk about the fear they have of being in the country, the flag they were waving freely,'" said Trump.

There's "a lot of sanctuary cities," continued Trump. "So, we'll give them to the sanctuary cities maybe, to take care of, if that's the way they want it, because we can only hold them under the current law for 20 days. We might as well do what they always say they want. We'll bring the illegals ... to sanctuary city areas, and let that particular area take care of it. Whether it's a state or whatever it might be."

"And let's see if they're so happy. They say, 'We have open arms.' They're always saying they have open arms. Let's see if they have open arms," said Trump.

The former Republican president's prediction has proved to be spot-on. Since President Biden took over the White House in 2021, more than 6 million illegal immigrants have entered the US due to his administration's open border policies.

Many illegal immigrants have either sought refuge in or have been transported there by bus or plane to Democrat-run cities such as New York City and Chicago. Both cities are now facing a crisis due to illegal immigration and New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency. Adams has requested that officials revoke the city's sanctuary status. The Mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson, has been recently hospitalized for panic attacks due to the crisis.