What Exactly is a "Sanctuary City"?
Why Do They Exist?
What is a Sanctuary City?
Any City or Jurisdiction that prohibits (by policy or practice) their police, or other personnel from reporting or detaining an illegal immigrant or reporting to Homeland Security - Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for immigration status.
Kate Steinle's murderer was an illegal immigrant that had been convicted of 7 felonies, deported 5 times and had recently been detained by SFPD, less than 2 months before her murder, but released when the charges were dropped.
Why do They Exist?
Supporters of Sanctuary Cities say that:
- They supposedly want victims of crimes to come forward without fear of being deported.
- They do not want their police officers turning into immigration officers.
Those OPPOSING Sanctuary Cities counter that:
- Cooperation with immigration enforcement has not been shown to undermine community trust nor cause immigrants to refrain from reporting crimes; there are better ways to address issues of access to police assistance without obstructing enforcement;
- Simply cooperating with federal immigration agencies does not turn local officers into de facto immigration officers, because federal officers make the decisions on which aliens are targeted for deportation;
- Such cooperation is not very costly for local jurisdictions because the removal of criminal aliens spares future victims and saves future supervision, incarceration, and social services costs to criminal aliens. In addition, cooperative localities can receive partial reimbursement for their incarceration costs.
