NEW YORK–(ENEWSPF)–November 28, 2016
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio
The cities of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and San Francisco all have something in common: Local officials have vowed to combat the mass deportations Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail. The New York Times writes:
Across the nation, officials in sanctuary cities are gearing up to oppose President-elect Donald J. Trump if he follows through on a campaign promise to deport millions of illegal immigrants. They are promising to maintain their policies of limiting local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration agents.
In doing so, municipal officials risk losing millions of dollars in federal assistance for their cities that helps pay for services like fighting crime and running homeless shelters. Mr. Trump has vowed to block all federal funding for cities where local law enforcement agencies do not cooperate with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents. […]
“I like to compare this to conscientious objector status,” said Mayor Libby Schaaf of Oakland, Calif. “We are not going to use our resources to enforce what we believe are unjust immigration laws.”
There’s numerous reasons for local officials to resist cooperating with federal immigration authorities on mass deportations, not least of which is the fact that ratting out undocumented immigrants who aren’t committing crimes would completely undermine any trust immigrant communities have with local police. That trust is essential. And that doesn’t even take into consideration the fact that immigrants are also essential to the thriving economies and culture in all these cities.
Some 500 cities have reportedly adopted policies limiting coordination with federal immigration officials. If Trump wants to make good on his massive deportation promise to all those white folks who believe immigrants are stealing their jobs, he’s going to have a hard time doing it at the expense of the cities where immigrants have become part of the lifeblood of the greater community.
Red states repeatedly banned together to defy President Obama’s policies on numerous issues, including immigration, even though he deported far more immigrants than any other American president has. Now, large cities seem to be stepping up to form a blue resistance to Trump’s initiatives.
Source: http://dailykos.com
