Final Project: Culture, Advocacy, and Sexual PracticesAlthough female genital mutilation (FGM) is illegal in 26 states in the United States and most countries, it is a practice that still exists aroun

Are Officials in Sanctuary Cities Breaking the Law by Not providing Information to the Federal Government?

Dennis Smith

Columbia Southern University

Are Officials in Sanctuary Cities Breaking the Law by Not providing Information to the Federal Government?

The Federal Government is putting measures in place to make Sanctuary cities such as San Francesco to turn over undocumented immigrants who they detain. In the bill, the federal government will bar these cities that do not comply with federal demands to turn over undocumented immigrants from receiving grants to support law enforcement and prevent terrorism. The house majority leader Kevin McCarthy said that “if those cities protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans, they should not expect their fellow citizens to help them through the federal government." While the Republicans were happy with the bill and they celebrated it as they felt that it supports law and order, the Democrats termed the bill to be racist and counterproductive (Joseph, 2017). The bill comes in when there is a growing controversy revolving around the concepts of sanctuary city because there does not exist any legal definition of a sanctuary city and what factors make one as such.

There is no specific legal definition of sanctuary cities or what factors describe such a city, a problem that makes cities be at liberty to choose whether to report undocumented immigrants. Municipal policies in the United States include prohibiting city employees or police from questioning about their immigration status as well as requesting any national immigration authorities request to detain people beyond their release date in case they are in jail for breaking local law. Such policies can be expressed in two ways, which is observed in practice, de facto, or set expressly in law, de jure; however, the description sanctuary city lacks a precise legal definition. According to the estimation by the Federal for American Immigration Reform of 2018 above 500 U.S. jurisdictions that include municipalities and states had adopted sanctuary policies. This situation of lack of a precise legal definition, as well as many states claiming designation of sanctuary cities, poses a problem to the federal government, a thing that is rendering federal government powerless.

By interfering with the power of the federal government, sanctuary policies interfere with the federal-local cooperation. Sanctuary policies interfere with the federal government combating crime associated with undocumented immigrants, therefore, they are destructive to both federal and local to combat the opioid prevalent since they tend to interfere with cooperation and communication that may lead to dismantling and disruption of distribution and trafficking organizations led by non-citizens. The policies deny both local and federal agencies the collaboration and partnership that is essential to success in combating transnational criminal organizations. Additionally, policies that sanctuary cities adopt inevitably results in the release of criminal immigrants back to the street where they can harm people (Van Ness, 2018). All in all sanctuary policies may act as an attraction for a foreign criminal organization whose operatives are in the country illegally, as they understand that these cities and the federal government overlook their presence in the country, therefore, the federal government is looking for a way of enforcing compliance.

With the current proposal for the federal government to withdraw federal funding for jurisdictions if it will not comply with immigration laws, the government looks forward to making the sanctuary cities to comply. These cities receive billions of dollars from the federal government that they use to support everything from aid to domestic violence victims to services for the disabled, which mean the cities will lose a lot. Jeff Sessions, the Attorney General has outlined how the federal government will use federal funds to crack down on sanctuary cities and states that choose not to comply with federal immigration laws (Joseph, 2017). The move will not affect all jurisdictions, but cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia which have policies limiting cooperation in enforcing federal immigration laws and protect local immigrant populations. Hopefully, this move will make the sanctuary cities comply with the federal government by providing information about undocumented immigrants.

References

Joseph, C. (2017). NY Daily News - We are currently unavailable in your region. Retrieved from http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/house-passes-bills-punishing-sanctuary-cities-immigrants-article-1.3289291

Lynch, S. N., & Rosenberg, M. (2017). Four U.S. 'sanctuary cities' may be violating law: U.S. Attorney General. Retrieved from Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-sanctuary/four-u-s-sanctuary-cities-may-be-violating-law-u-s-attorney-general-idUSKBN1CH20R

Van Ness, V. N. (2018). Streetwise Community Policing to Inform United States National Policy. In Translating National Policy to Improve Environmental Conditions Impacting Public Health Through Community Planning(pp. 285-303). Springer, Cham.