Across the U.S. are hundreds of so-called “sanctuary cities,” those that offer a place of refuge to illegal aliens by refusing to report them to federal law enforcement for solely immigration-related crimes. A number of mayors of such cities have publicly banded together to resist Donald Trump on immigration, but unfortunately for them, you don’t just get to pick and choose which federal laws you want to obey.
A bill had already been introduced to defund sanctuary cities before Trump took office, and Trump quickly signed off on an executive order commanding just that. It’s a good thing too. By one estimate, just twelve sanctuary cities hold twenty percent of all the illegal immigrants in the U.S.
It’ll be interesting to see how many mayors of such cities hold out to pressure, as even they must be aware it’s not in their best economic interest to harbor illegal immigrants - so why would they want to lose funding over it? One by one they’ll fold - and the first just did.
As the Daily Mail reported: President Trump has praised the mayor of Miami-Dade after he ordered the city’s jails to comply with the crackdown on ‘sanctuary’ counties.
Donald Trump has issued an executive order directing federal agencies to take away funding from self-proclaimed ‘sanctuary cities’ that limit cooperation with immigration authorities. Unlike cities like San Francisco, Miami-Dade never officially labelled itself a ‘sanctuary’, but since 2013 has refused to indefinitely detain inmates who are in the country illegally and wanted by ICE. Last year, the county refused to detain around 100 illegal immigrants wanted by the authorities, on the grounds that it would have cost $52,000 out of their $7 billion annual budget.
‘In light of the provisions of the Executive Order, I direct you and your staff to honor all immigration detainer requests received from the Department of Homeland Security,’ Gimenez wrote to Daniel Junior, the interim director of the corrections and rehabilitation department.
Miami-Dade Mayor drops sanctuary policy. Right decision. Strong! https://t.co/MtPvaDC4jM
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2017
One down, hundreds to go. Who will cave next?
[Note: This post was authored by Matt Palumbo. Follow him on Twitter @MattPalumbo12]