Four years ago, I got the call no family should ever receive. My innocent teenage brother, Christian, had been shot and killed on the streets of Chicago. He was just a kid, full of promise, full of life. Gone. This Saturday, I am going back. Not to mourn. To march.
Chicago is the shining example of how soft-on-crime policies devastate families across our nation. It is the epicenter of a political failure so profound and so deliberate that its consequences have spread to cities all across America. Those who have chosen to put virtue signaling ahead of victims have turned one of America’s great cities into a graveyard of broken promises. The families paying the price are not the politicians who made those promises. They are the mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters who have lost not one, but in some cases, multiple loved ones to violent crime.
Are sanctuary city policies destroying these communities? Yes. Is it the elimination of cash bail? Yes. Is it elected officials who have fought harder for criminals than for the public they were elected to serve? Yes. It is all of the above and more.
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: CHICAGO COP KILLED AFTER SUSPECT RELEASED UNDER SAFE-T ACT
Illinois became the first state in the nation to completely eliminate cash bail through the SAFE-T Act, a law that allows judges the discretion to release violent offenders without requiring them to post any money or collateral â simply by signing a form promising to return to court. No money. No bond. No consequence.
The results speak for themselves. Through the first six months of 2026, Chicago recorded 210 homicides, a nearly 6% increase compared to the same period in 2025, with 686 shooting incidents leaving 858 people wounded or killed across the city. These are not statistics. These are people. These are families. These are futures stolen.
Some will point to the fact that nationally, homicide rates fell dramatically in 2025, reaching what researchers called the lowest level since at least 1900. Good. But let’s be honest about why. That progress did not come from the policies championed by blue city mayors. It came in spite of them.
GOP SENATORS RALLY AROUND NEW DHS PROPOSAL TARGETING SANCTUARY CITIES: ‘SHOULD PAY A PRICE’
President Donald Trump directed U.S. Marshals Service Director Gadyaces Serralta to lead a coordinated crime surge operation across America’s most dangerous cities, bringing together 31 federal agencies to take violent criminals off the streets. In Washington, D.C., alone, murders dropped 60%, robberies dropped 50%, and carjackings fell a staggering 70%. The Memphis task force surpassed 4,000 arrests. Nationally, U.S. Marshals arrested over 73,000 fugitives in 2025 alone. Now in 2026, with Chicago already trending back upward, you can see exactly what happens when a city refuses that help. Mayor Brandon Johnson signed executive orders directing Chicago police to withhold cooperation from federal agents, vowing publicly that his city “will not ever cooperate with ICE.” <a hre
