John Torres, former Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director, told Newsmax on Tuesday that illegal migrants living in sanctuary cities or states are oftentimes “ticking time bombs” just waiting to detonate and victimize innocent Americans.

Last week, a mother and her 11-year-old daughter were out for ice cream in Lakewood, New Jersey, when they were struck and killed by an illegal immigrant driving drunk down a road in the wrong direction. While Lakewood has not been identified as a sanctuary jurisdiction by the Department of Homeland Security, New Jersey became a sanctuary state in 2019 after a directive issued the year prior by former state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal took effect.

“Sadly, it’s really mind-boggling to think about how a sanctuary city policy is such poor public safety practice,” Torres said on “Wake Up America.” “In reality, you have multiple bites at the apple. There are many chances to take this person into custody, but, because they’re a sanctuary city, they won’t transfer them to ICE. Especially when you’re talking about recidivist criminals or, in this case, this person has been arrested multiple times for drunk driving. And so, it’s just a matter of time. It’s a ticking time bomb. You have many of these ticking time bombs in the community just waiting to explode and, sadly, it ends up victimizing innocent people in the community. How are you actually protecting the community with a sanctuary city policy like this?”

Read more at Newsmax© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.