Sanctuary Cities are Illegal but Mayors are Fighting the President to Protect Illegal Immigrants

By Neil A. Carousso

This article has been updated.

Sanctuary cities provide no sanctuary for American citizens.

“This is going to be very destructive to this city, and it’s also immoral,” said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio

Personally, this American believes it is immoral that New York City and upwards of 300 jurisdictions, give or take, plus college campuses consider themselves a sanctuary for illegal immigrants, ignoring and putting law-abiding U.S. citizens’ lives in danger.

Mayor de Blasio, Chicago’s Mayor Rahm Emanuel, mayors in California and others could be prosecuted by the the U.S. Department of Justice for violating an existing law, enacted in 1996 under President Bill Clinton. The “Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act” includes section 8 U.S.C. 1373, which provided that “no state or local entity can in any way restrict its law-enforcement officials from communicating with federal immigration authorities regarding an individual’s citizenship or immigration status.” Furthermore, Article VI, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution establishes that federal laws are supreme over state laws and policy.

So-called sanctuary cities allow illegal aliens, including those who are convicted criminals, to be shielded from federal immigration law by the local government; mayors and city officials break the law by refusing to hand over illegal aliens to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE, whose border patrol agents endorsed Mr. Trump for President, generally seeks out criminal illegal aliens and President Donald J. Trump has vowed to detain and deport those criminal illegal immigrants. This is not unreasonable; it is the law and policy by countries worldwide. Why are we putting our citizens at unnecessary risk when we can protect our citizens from preventable crime?

Perfect example, and not an isolated incident by far, of why sanctuary cities are illegal and immoral: Kate Steinle, a 32-year-old medical sales representative, was killed by illegal immigrant Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, a Mexican national and convicted felon (7 convicted felonies), on July 1, 2015 in San Francisco, CA (a sanctuary city). San Francisco’s sanctuary city policy protected this felon from being handed over to ICE, detained and deported to Mexico. Lopez-Sanchez was deported to Mexico five times only to return to the U.S. illegally six times. This is also a perfect example of the necessities of a border security, the wall on the southern border, border surveillance, and enforcing laws on the books. “Kate’s Law” has been reintroduced in Congress; it would mandate a five year sentence in a federal penitentiary upon conviction for illegal immigrants who reenter the United States after being deported.

The Trump Administration announced Wednesday that the White House will publish a weekly list of crimes purportedly committed by illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities.

There is case law that permits President Trump from withdrawing funding for those cities who claim to be a sanctuary for illegal immigrants. Chicago could be declining over $2 million in grants for the upcoming fiscal year, while New York City is passing up close to $15 million. The DOJ could request Chicago and NYC refund the federal government for previous years in which the cities operated as a sanctuary for illegals. What may be worse is that Mayor de Blasio has threatened to destroy records of illegal immigrants to spite the federal government.

If these mayors continue to defy federal law, this case could end-up in the Supreme Court of the United States. President Trump is expected to nominate a Supreme Court Justice next week, to be confirmed by the Senate, to fill the vacancy left by originalist Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia when he passed last February at the age of 79.

On the economic end, in addition to making cities vulnerable to crime, taxpayers pay for illegal immigrants’ healthcare including doctor visits, shots, prescription drugs, lab tests and surgeries at local providers. The services usually are inexpensive or free to participants, who must prove they live in the county but are told their immigration status doesn’t matter, according to a recent Wall Street Journal survey. Taxpayers also pay for illegal immigrants’ education and subsidized housing. We have about 43 million Americans living in poverty and 13 million more Americans on food stamps since 2009 plus approximately 39,500 U.S. veterans are homeless on a given night. Healthcare costs are skyrocketing for Americans around the country with upwards of 110 percent increase in premiums in Arizona and deductibles so high that many mandated insured Americans never use their insurance.

Mr. Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Friday that will implement “extreme vetting” for refugees and illegal immigrants to decrease the threat of terror and crime after temporarily banning immigration from nations that are a hotbed for terrorism. Nations who have and continue to send terrorists to the United States include Syria, Iran and Libya. The ban would be temporary for approximately 120 days, according to a leaked draft of the executive order, until President Trump’s extreme vetting policies are implemented to ensure that people entering the U.S. have no suspicion of terrorism with the assurance that they believe in our inclusive American values and democracy. Syria is the exception the temporary ban; Syria immigrants would face an “indefinite” ban with the Chief Executive promising to build a safe zone in the terror nation for refugees.

That executive order has not been signed, yet, and it is not a ban on religion. Just the opposite, this executive order bans immigration from countries who persecute people because of their religion, gender, political beliefs, among others. Some nations are majority Muslim, but not 100 percent Muslim nations.

In the long-term, refugee admissions would be reduced by 50 percent if this reported executive order becomes law.

UPDATE: 

The Miami Herald reported Thursday that Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez “ordered county jails to comply with federal immigration detention requests — effectively gutting the county’s position as a “sanctuary” for immigrants in the country illegally.” Mayor Giminez reportedly feared a loss of millions of dollars in federal funding.

President Trump reacted on Twitter Thursday evening, praising the Miami-Dade Mayor’s decision.

Featured Image: Center for Immigration Studies

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