Sanctuary Cities

Is Trump Waging A Stealth War Of Retaliation Against Sanctuary Cities?

April 1, 2017 Sarah Lazare, www.alternet.org Educate! Donald Trump, Immigration, Sanctuary Cities, Undocumented

By Sarah Lazare for AlterNet - General Jeff Sessions doubles down on President Donald Trump’s threats to crack down on sanctuary cities, evidence is mounting that the administration has already made them the target of retaliatory immigration raids as part of a backdoor effort to force compliance. The term “sanctuary city” refers to the hundreds of jurisdictions across the United States that, to one degree or another, limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. CNN reported on March 25 that an unnamed “senior U.S. immigration official with direct knowledge of ongoing ICE actions” testified that federal authorities have descended upon sanctuary cities to pressure them to cooperate.

Seattle Sues Trump Administration Over Threat To ‘Sanctuary’ Cities

March 30, 2017 Tom James, www.reuters.com Resist! Sanctuary Cities, Seattle, Trump Administration

By Tom James for Reuters - The city of Seattle sued U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday over its executive order seeking to withhold federal funds from "sanctuary cities," arguing it amounted to unconstitutional federal coercion. Seattle Mayor Ed Murray told reporters the Constitution forbade the federal government from pressuring cities, “yet that is exactly what the president’s order does. Once again, this new administration has decided to bully.” “Things like grants helping us with child sex trafficking are not connected to immigration,” Murray said, adding: "It is time for cities to stand up and ask the courts to put an end to the anxiety in our cities and the chaos in our system."

Seeking ‘To Create A Police State,’ AG Sessions Threatens Sanctuary Cities

March 28, 2017 Andrea Germanos, www.commondreams.org Resist! Police State, Sanctuary Cities, Trump Administration

By Andrea Germanos for Common Dreams - U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday took aim at sanctuary cities, saying such communities must end and that his Department of Justice would deprive them of federal grants—a move that prompted the New York attorney general to vow his continued resolution in resisting the Trump administration's "draconian policies." "Such policies cannot continue. They make our nation less safe by putting dangerous criminals back on the streets," he said during a White House press briefing. "We intend to use all the lawful authorities we have to make sure our state and local officials … are in sync with the federal government," Sessions said.

Number Of Sanctuary Cities Nears 500

March 15, 2017 Stephen Dinan, www.washingtontimes.com Resist! Immigration, Sanctuary Cities, Undocumented

By Stephen Dinan for The Washington Times - Nearly 500 jurisdictions are now sanctuary cities, according to a group that’s tracked the issue for more than a decade, and who said there’s been a massive surge in the number of places trying to thwart federal immigration agents since President Trump’s election. The Ohio Jobs & Justice Political Action Committee has added more than three dozen new cities and counties to its list in 2017 alone, as jurisdictions rush to try to shield illegal immigrants from what they expect to be a new push for deportations under Mr. Trump. “More will be coming,” said Steve Salvi, founder of OJJ. “A lot of communities now, there’s resolutions in the works and citizens groups encouraging city councils to pass them.”

Faith Communities And Campuses Trying To Give Refuge To Immigrants

March 6, 2017 Rebekah Barber, www.faccingsouth.org Resist! Immigration, Refugees, Sanctuary Cities, Undocumented

By Rebekah Barber For Facing South - Dating back thousands of years, the concept of sanctuary stems from the custom of offering hospitality to the stranger. In ancient Greek cities, slaves and thieves took sanctuary at the shrines of the gods. During biblical times, those who had killed someone accidentally could take asylum in cities designated for refuge. In recent years, dozens of U.S. cities and counties became part of this tradition by adopting so-called "sanctuary policies" that bar local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. The policies aim to build safer communities by strengthening undocumented immigrants' trust in local police.

Immigrant Organizer: ‘Walk With Me’

February 26, 2017 Renee Feltz, www.indypendent.org Resist! ICE, Immigrant Rights, Immigration, Sanctuary Cities

By Renee Feltz for The indypendent. On March 9, Trinidadian immigrant Ravi Ragbir is scheduled to appear for his annual check-in with a deportation officer at the federal building in lower Manhattan. “I will go in,” he says. “Even though I suspect this may be the day I won’t be coming out.” No matter what happens, he will not go alone. “You can easily disappear,” he notes.” So it’s best to have people witness.” Ragbir knows the power of accompaniment. As executive director of the New Sanctuary Coalition of NYC, he has worked to connect members of 30 congregations, faith communities and other groups with hundreds of undocumented immigrants seeking refuge and support.

Sanctuary Echoes Cities Opposing The Fugitive Slave Act

February 23, 2017 Tim Butterworth, www.otherwords.org Educate! Black History, Immigration, Sanctuary Cities, Slavery, US history

By Tim Butterworth for Other Words - A century and a half before Trump's refugee ban, cities like Boston rebelled against the Fugitive Slave Act. Shortly after Donald Trump’s order to ban thousands of documented, vetted immigrants and refugees from our shores, crowds rushed to airports all over the country to protect those who’d just arrived. Soon after, crowds in Phoenix and other cities surrounded federal immigration enforcement vans during raids on immigrants, in an attempt to block deportations. In Boston, which was home to many of these actions, I was reminded of another time citizens rejected an odious federal law to protect refugees seeking shelter here. On May 24th, 1854, Anthony Burns — a 19-year-old man who’d escaped slavery in Virginia — was captured in the city and held under armed guard by federal marshals.

FSU Students Create Sanctuary Campus

February 23, 2017 SDS Tally, www.popularresistance.org Create! Education, ICE, Immigration, Sanctuary Cities

By Students for a Democratic Society Tallahassee. “We are very glad to see our efforts were rewarded tonight, after weeks collecting over 700 petition signatures and campaigning on campus. However, the fight is not over. We need the FSU administration and President John Thrasher to acknowledge our referendum and declare FSU a sanctuary campus. Immigrants on campus are uncertain about their futures and worried about how Trump’s policies will affect them. Declaring our campus a sanctuary is the first step to showing that immigrants are cared for and will be protected here” said Katherine Draken, President of the FSU chapter of Students for a Democratic Society.

Ten Examples of Resistance to Government Raids

February 22, 2017 Bill Quigley, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Immigration, Private Prisons, Sanctuary Cities

By Bill Quigley for Popular Resistance. Resistance to unjust government action is the duty of all people who care about human rights As Dr. King reminded us in his letter from a Birmingham jail, “Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.” It is now clear that Latinos and Muslims are Trump’s first target for government actions. The orders just released put ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and US Customs and Border Protection on steroids. These new policies also will have a devastating impact on LGBTQ , as well as Black and Muslim communities.

Donald Trump Declared War On ‘Sanctuary Cities.’ They’re Already Fighting Back.

January 27, 2017 Staff, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Donald Trump, Immigration, Sanctuary Cities, Undocumented

By Staff of The Huffington Post - SAN FRANCISCO ― One of President Donald Trump’s first major executive actions on immigration policy is facing massive political blowback and will almost certainly crash and burn under the Constitution once courts begin to scrutinize the fine print. During a visit to the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday, Trump signed an executive order aimed at strong-arming so-called “sanctuary cities” into cooperating fully with his efforts to ramp up deportations. Threatening loss of federal funding and using shaming tactics for localities that refuse to comply, the order is styled as a call to obey existing immigration laws...

The Real Baltimore: Sanctuary Cities As Resistance To Donald Trump

January 23, 2017 Staff, www.therealnews.com Create! Deportations, Donald Trump, Immigration, Sanctuary Cities, Undocumented

By Staff of The Real News Network - Because there are only about 5,000 federal immigration officers nationwide, authorities rely heavily on local authorities to help with deportations. Some of the strongest sanctuary policies exist in cities like Chicago, and the encompassing Cook County, which prevents local authorities from asking for immigration status. Prevents the sharing of immigration status with federal authorities, and refuses to hold immigrants without a warrant. Courts have ruled these policies, known as ICE Detainers, are unconstitutional and violate the 4th Amendment.

Sanctuary Cities Are Safe, Thanks to Conservatives

December 4, 2016 Noah Feldman, www.bloomberg.com Educate! ACA, Immigration, Sanctuary Cities

By Noah Feldman for Bloomberg. President-elect Donald Trump says he will make “sanctuary cities” help deport immigrants by taking away their federal funding if they don’t change their policies. The good news is that he and Congress can’t do it -- not without violating the Constitution. Two core rules of federalism preclude Trump’s idea: The federal government can’t coerce states (or cities) into action with a financial “gun to the head,” according to Supreme Court precedent developed by Chief Justice John Roberts in the 2012 Affordable Care Act case. And federal officials can’t “commandeer” state officials to do their work for them under a 1997 decision that involved gun purchases under the Brady Act. Justice Roberts analyzed the ACA Medicaid provisions by saying that, under the spending clause of the Constitution, Congress can’t create a funding condition that is unrelated to the original funding purpose and is so coercive that it amounts to a “gun to the head” of the states. Roberts’s doctrine applies with full force to Trump’s threat to pull cities’ existing funding if they remain sanctuaries by declining to cooperate with federal officials to enforce immigration law.

Oakland Passes Public Banking Resolution, Reaffirmed As Sanctuary City

December 1, 2016 Sheng Thao, www.cowboysonthecommons.org Create! Immigrant Rights, Immigration, Oakland, Public Banking, Sanctuary Cities

By Sheng Thao for Cowboys On The Commons - The Resolution, co-sponsored by Councilmembers Kaplan, Kalb, and Guillen, directs the City Administrator to look into the scope and cost of conducting a feasibility study for public banking in Oakland and possibly the larger region. It also directs City Staff to solicit input from community stakeholders about the feasibility study, including suggestions of potential contractors and funding sources; and makes it clear that the study should cover the legality and feasibility of banking the cannabis industry. The Resolution generated support from Councilmembers and community members alike.

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