Reaffirms Opposition to Sanctuary Policies and Support for Increased Cooperation Between Federal, State, and Local Law Enforcement
Governor Hogan today held a press conference in Prince George’s County to highlight his commitment to address crime, immigration, and public safety issues in the United States Senate.
“Crime is top of mind for most Marylanders and most Americans,” Governor Hogan said. “However, like most pressing issues of the day, politicians only offer platitudes and spout political talking points. That must change. We can address the tide of rising crime, but we can no longer allow local partisan politicians to put politics before public safety.”
Watch the press conference.
Read Governor Hogan’s public safety policy plan here.
During the press conference, Governor Hogan reaffirmed his opposition to sanctuary policies that lead to the release of violent criminals.
“I will work to increase coordination between federal, state, and local law enforcement just as I did as governor,” Governor Hogan said. “And I will fight to ensure that local governments are required to follow federal law and stop releasing violent felons onto the streets. I will fight to secure the border and fix the broken immigration system. I will reach across the aisle and bring people in both parties together to support our dedicated men and women of law enforcement and fight to make our communities safer.”
Governor Hogan’s remarks as prepared:
Thank you for joining us here today to focus on the urgent need for common sense solutions to keep our communities safe.
For eight years that is exactly the approach we took in Maryland. When calls to Defund the Police broke out across the country, I was one of the first statewide leaders in America to strongly push back. Saying you want to improve policing by defunding the police is like saying you want to improve education by defunding the schools. It’s absurd and ridiculous.
We reversed this trend by dedicating half a billion dollars more to a first in the nation Re-fund the Police initiative, which increased state aid to local police by 50% to enable them to hire more police. We provided for recruitment and retention bonuses for law enforcement officers, better training, and more technology and record support for victim services.
We need to stop demonizing and sabotaging the dedicated men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect the rest of us. When I was governor, we passed into law a requirement for schools to have a school resource officer or plans for adequate law enforcement support in every single school in the state in an effort to keep our children safe. We took every action we possibly could to take violent criminals off our streets. Every year, we pushed for tougher sentences for repeat violent offenders and people who commit felonies with a gun despite opposition from the legislature. We pushed for judicial transparency to let the public know the sentences that are being handed down for violent crimes.
In 2021, I vetoed the Juvenile Restoration Act, an insane bill that would stop accountability for juvenile offenders who commit heinous crimes like murder and rape. We rejected reckless efforts to turn Maryland into a sanctuary state and we worked to address the long-term root causes of crime and to provide more and better substance abuse and mental health resources, and help those who have paid their debts successfully re-enter society.
When then-Baltimore States’ Attorney Marilyn Mosby was failing to prosecute crimes, we worked with the U.S. Attorney for Maryland to deploy strategic federal assets to get the job done. We provided millions of dollars in state funding to support additional staff including additional special assistant United States attorneys, federal prosecutors for Baltimore who pursued the “Al Capone Model” of pursuing federal firearms fraud and other criminal charges against individuals known to be repeat violent offenders.
These efforts produced results.
In 2022, murders in Baltimore began to decline compared to the prior year and are continuing to be lower. Despite that progress, there is still far more work to do.
Sadly, we have seen a tragic surge in crime here in Prince George’s County. There is a public safety crisis unfolding in this county as a result of years of deprioritizing and underfunding. According to recent polls, the rising crime rate is the number one concern for residents. Now that the County Executive is running for Senate, she is telling voters that violent crime in Prince George’s County is down. That is false—the facts tell a completely different story.
Since 2018, violent crime has surged, homicides have nearly doubled, and carjackings have increased more than 500%. My opponent and I have taken completely different approaches to public safety. During the height of the Defund the Police movement, she defunded $20 million for police training that would’ve helped law enforcement officers accomplish their jobs and stop crime in Prince George’s County.
I have met with the brave men and women of law enforcement here in Prince George’s County to hear their concerns. They feel ignored and unappreciated by county leadership. They are severely underfunded and understaffed by nearly 300 hundred officers. As a result, despite their best efforts, the average police response time in Prince George’s County has risen to nearly double the national average.
Just yesterday, Governor Moore also proposed cuts for law enforcement, including for police training and to reduce the number of open warrants. Angela Alsobrooks has refused to speak out against these cuts that will make this public safety crisis even worse.
Under County Executive Alsobrooks’ watch, Prince George’s County has begun implementing a proposal to remove security from schools. In one of her first acts in office, she announced that Prince George’s County would no longer follow federal law and would refuse to cooperate with federal law enforcement. Under her sanctuary policy, Prince George’s County has released violent criminals, sex offenders, and violent gang members who are here illegally and refused to inform federal law enforcement who have requested detainers on these violent felons.
The failure to notify federal law enforcement officers of the release of violent criminals and murders and rapists is totally outrageous, and poses a grave danger to the community.
Governor Moore was right when he said that County Executive Alsobrooks’ policy is “violating federal law.” As the governor said, “This isn’t about immigration or immigrants, this is about people who break the law.” Well, on this I agree with him. My opponent also supports abolishing cash bail which would release defendants accused of violent crimes back onto the streets.
Crime is top of mind for most Marylanders and most Americans. However, like most pressing of the issues of the day politicians only offer platitudes and spout political talking points. That must change.
We can address the tide of rising crime, but we can no longer allow local partisan politicians to put politics before public safety. Now more than ever, we need leaders who are willing to stand up to the political party bosses and the loudest, angriest, and most extreme voices to keep our communities safe.
There are bipartisan common sense solutions which the federal government can adopt that have the potential to make a real difference.
In the Senate, I will take the exact same approach I did for eight years as governor. I will lead the fight to Re-fund our Police at the federal level with greater training for law enforcement, more school resource officers, and funding to solve violent crimes and to support victims and their families.
I will continue to support increased criminal penalties for violent offenders and take the same proven approach we used to surge resources to hire federal prosecutors who will focus on getting these shooters off the streets and behind bars and on breaking up these carjacking gangs and the drug dealers and other organized crime.
We will push to hold violent criminals accountable especially here in Prince George’s County, where crime is unfortunately skyrocketing out of control more than any other area of the state.
I will work to increase coordination between federal, state, and local law enforcement just as I did as governor. And I will fight to ensure that local governments are required to follow federal law and stop releasing violent felons onto the streets. I will fight to secure the border and fix the broken immigration system. I will reach across the aisle and bring people in both parties together to support our dedicated men and women of law enforcement and fight to make our communities safer.
We can no longer allow partisan politics and the party bosses to get in the way of public safety. Enough is enough. Enough of the empty rhetoric. It is time for less talk and more action.
Let’s face it, one party alone can’t fix this mess. This is not just about the differences between the right and the left, this is about the difference between right and wrong. And this isn’t just the typical fight between Democrats and Republicans. It’s more important than that.
This is a fight for Prince George’s County’s and Maryland’s future and that is a fight worth fighting. And it’s why I’m running for the United States Senate.
Thank you.
