A wall won’t stop cop killers

Debra J. Saunders’ Sunday column opined that the tragic murder of a police officer by a known criminal undocumented immigrant could be a powerful argument against sanctuary cities and for giving Donald Trump $5 billion for a wall on our southern border. But an anecdote is not the same as data.

Of the 47 police officers shot and killed in 2018, only one was killed by an undocumented immigrant. The overwhelming majority of those murders occurred in states with no sanctuary cities. Building a wall and eliminating sanctuary cities would do almost nothing to eliminate the murder of police officers.

Ms. Saunders also invokes the tragic killing of Kate Steinle. She fails to mention that the man arrested for shooting her was not found guilty of murder.

The data show that the majority of people in this country illegally enter legally and overstay their visas. A wall would do nothing to prevent that. The billions of dollars the wall would cost could be spent in so many better ways to make our citizens safer. The anecdotes Ms. Saunders’ cites provide powerful emotional appeal but should never be the basis of legislation.