Opinion: Memo to Jeff Sessions: Construction accidents are more likely than undocumented immigrants to kill Americans.

To the editor: U.S. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions recently claimed that a crack-down on so-called sanctuary cities would spare “countless” families from having loved ones killed by criminal aliens. (“California’s state and local leaders strike a defiant tone on Sessions’ call to end ‘sanctuary cities,’” March 27)

The Washington Post fact-checked a similar claim by then-candidate Donald Trump in 2016; it found there were 208 attempted and committed homicides associated with criminal aliens in 2015. Even one murder is too many, but Sessions’ use of anecdotal evidence to justify mass deportation is cynical.

Placing the actual number of homicides into perspective, an American would be 159 times more likely to die from a fall, 15 times more likely to die in an auto accident involving a distracted driver, and four times more likely to die in a construction accident than to die at the hands of an undocumented immigrant released from jail.

Deporting thousands of immigrants will make our communities less safe. The Justice Department’s sanctuary cities policy is not based on facts.

John C. Rude, Pasadena

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To the editor: I don’t know what the anti-President Trump politicians in California heard, but I listened to Sessions’ warning to sanctuary cities that some of their federal funding is at risk, and it was clear to me that he would like local government to cooperate with Washington to deport criminal illegal immigrants.

What is so bad about that? Does state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) want to defend dangerous criminals? Does he go to bat for U.S. citizens who commit crimes?

De León and people like him need to stop the chest thumping and listen to what the federal government is asking, which is entirely reasonable and what the citizens of this country want.

Debbie Murray, Glendale

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