Illegal Sanctuary

Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, November 27, 2015 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler

In 1996 when folks seemed to know what’s right and wrong, Congress passed a law requiring local governments to cooperate with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. But, defiant towns, counties and communities deliberately adopted “sanctuary” policies, telling local government employees NOT to report illegals living there. So, illegal aliens are protected from arrest and deportation, while receiving the same benefits legal residents get.

In October the Center for Immigration Studies reported that roughly 340 jurisdictions in the United States give sanctuary to illegal aliens, and during the first nine months of 2014, local sanctuaries released 9,295 alien offenders federal agents wanted detained. Since federal ICE agents could not re-locate most of them, 69 percent remained at large to commit other crimes, which 20 percent of them did.

Not only are some local governments ignoring ICE requests to detain illegal aliens for federal pick-up, they are choosing which criminals to hold and which to release into the community. In other words, local sanctuary governments are protecting deportable criminal alien offenders by hindering communication between ICE agents and local law enforcement.

For years, Dalton, Georgia has been on the sanctuary city list, but in December 2014 Clayton County, Georgia was listed among 41 new locations that have adopted formal or informal sanctuary policies. Informal policies could be as simple as word-of-mouth instructions NOT to report and NOT to cooperate with federal ICE agents.An informal sanctuary policy may be indicated when a mayor of a town hires illegal alien day laborers for a city project or an official complains to the press that illegal aliens in the community should not be subject to raids or federal arrest.

Some claim sanctuary cities protect immigrant rights, but illegal aliens are not immigrants. An immigrant is a person who enters the U.S. legally, maintains legal presence and does not overstay a visa. Any person illegally smuggled into the United States or who violates visa restrictions is an unauthorized illegal alien subject to deportation under existing U.S. law. Although the federal administration has, reportedly, pressured the Department of Homeland Security NOT to interfere with sanctuary policies, local governments have every right to pass laws against them, and Georgia legislators should do just that! For Georgia Insight I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.