Sanctuary Cities

What is a 'Sanctuary City'? 

According to the publication Governing:

"Under the now-defunct federal Secure Communities program, which launched in 2008, ICE requested local law enforcement to detain undocumented immigrants in jail for longer, to give ICE officers time to arrive and possibly deport them. Most jurisdictions willingly complied with this, but upwards of 300 refused and were labeled as sanctuary cities."

  

Why don't some cities want to cooperate with Federal Law Enforcement Officers?

There are a few key reasons:

Problems for Police Departments
Some ICE requests are at odds with other constitutional laws, like due process. Local law enforcement are often asked to profile anyone who 'might be' an illegal immigrant, and/or are asked to keep people detained without lawful reasoning.

Detaining and profiling members of the community produce two problems for local law enforcement: maintaining trust in the community (not to mention additional funding needed to carry out immigration enforcement). Chelsea, Massachusetts' City Manager had this to say in the Boston Herald: 

"The policies that we have in place in Chelsea have a singular goal: to make our citizens safer," Ambrosino said. "It's essential that our police department in no way, shape or form have anything to do with federal immigration. This is a public safety issue for the city of Chelsea."

Problems for Governing Bodies
Cities and other governing bodies can be sued for violating civil rights of people caught in ICE profiling or detention cases. In a court of law, constitutional guarantees are paramount.

Also from Governing:

 “Some of these smaller areas are between a rock and a hard place,” said Hadi Sedigh, an associate legislative director for the National Association of Counties. “They’re being told on the one hand that there are these court cases and they’re going to get sued if they cooperate, and on the other hand the federal government is saying you’re going to lose funding if you don’t cooperate.”

Cities also have to deal with the humanitarian issues of people in their communities, whether the individuals are legal or not:

 "We have built a community of trust," agreed Gladys Vega, executive director of the Chelsea Collaborative. "We don't care how you enter the country, we care that you're a protected member of our society. This doesn't enhance anything in our community. This is so wrong, so inhumane." -- Chelsea, Massachusetts Civic Leader

Some governing bodies have criticized the government for not enforcing immigration laws, and have taken Federal jurisdiction into their own hands

 You may remember several cities in PA passing ordinances that would penalize businesses or churches for helping illegal immigrants. Again, these laws, besides infringing on Federal jurisdiction to address immigration issues, led to cases of profiling and charges of discrimination.

At the core of the matter is conflict in Federal and Constitutional Law

Someone needs to reconcile the civil rights laws with immigration laws. Attorney Jeff Sessions could initiate a process to reconcile conflicting immigration laws, court cases can clarify the constitutionality of immigration laws, or congress could initiate a process to reconcile civil and immigration laws.

Sessions has said he will only, and can only enforce the laws on the books, and puts the weight on congress to fix the laws.

Our state Senator, Lou Barletta, has initiated laws against Sanctuary Cities, without reconciling the conflicting civil and immigration laws.

Several sanctuary cities have initiated court cases concerning Trump's executive order to withhold funding from cities that do not comply with ICE.