TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): So, the head of the New York City Council, Melissa Mark-Viverito, said that enforcing our immigration laws -- said this at the conference -- American immigration laws, was tantamount to ethnic cleansing. Do you agree with that?
CRISTÓBAL ALEX: I'm grateful to be here. I'm grateful that the speaker invited us to this amazing conference, which is the first of its kind in the country. The idea behind the conference was to bring together local officials from around the country to develop policies that will strengthen sanctuary city policies and protect immigrants. The speaker, Melissa Mark-Viverito, was a champion for progressive values, a champion for immigrants, and the point that she was trying to make is that sanctuary cities are actually much safer. And what Jeff Sessions, and what this Department of Justice are trying to do is pass draconian laws that will make it much harder and unsafe for our cities in the United States.
CARLSON: I've heard this before, and, just to be clear, there's no social science to support your position on that. There are no actual studies that show a sanctuary city is safer. Sorry.
ALEX: I disagree with you, Tucker.
CARLSON: There's no disagreement -- there haven't been studies done on that that show it.
ALEX: Let me just correct you there. I can talk about it right now. The most comprehensive study to date is the University of California study done by Ted Wong. It basically looked at sanctuary cities across the country, and it said that there's 35.5 fewer crimes committed per 10,000 in sanctuary cities than nonsanctuary cities. It also said it's even better in smaller municipalities. And, importantly, sanctuary cities have stronger economies, lower poverty rates, lower uninsured rates --
CARLSON: I don't want to waste either one of our time here. That's not causation. There's no established connection between those two. It's merely speculative --
ALEX: I don't know that it is.
