Sanctuary Cities Get BAD NEWS Ahead of Trump Presidency

28 Dec, 2016 by Cassy Fiano

Print this article Font size -16+

Sanctuary cities have been popping up over the last few years, where illegal immigrants can come to live without fear of being prosecuted for their crimes. It’s an unsustainable model, so it was only a matter of time before they started to fall apart. And right before the Trump presidency, that’s exactly what has begun to happen.

Suffolk County Sheriff Vincent DeMarco, of New York, is officially ending his sanctuary city plan. It’s suspected that this is due to Donald Trump’s plan to target cities and municipalities that hide illegal immigrants from federal immigration officials and refuse to cooperate with them.

For his part, DeMarco said he made the decision based on “legal analysis.” But the timing of the about face has a lot of people wondering. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has already taken seven illegal immigrants living in Suffolk County into custody. “I do believe this is good public policy because it focuses on criminals,” DeMarco said. “We’re talking about people who entered the country illegally and have committed crimes and have been convicted of crimes.”

Suffolk County executive Steve Bellone added, “I opposed open-ended detainer requests because, among other things, they placed an enormous burden on local government to spend millions on incarceration to cover unfunded mandates. However, Suffolk County works closely with federal law enforcement, and a limited, 48-hour detainer represents a step in the right direction.”

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is expected to target sanctuary cities once he takes office. Dan Cadman, of the Center for Immigration Studies, said that he expects to see more sanctuary cities reverse course, now that there will be an administration in place that doesn’t tolerate them. “I mean, let’s face it . . . a new administration is coming in and the new administration has said, unambiguously, they’re going to take an entirely different and harder approach toward sanctuaries,” Cadman said. “I don’t think that many counties and many county sheriffs and some police departments want to be between the hammer and the anvil.”