There has been a lot of news and commentary critical of so-called sanctuary city policies. I have to wonder how many critics actually know what a sanctuary city is?

With warrant articles on the ballot in several NH municipalities next week, I think it’s important for people to know the truth, and not simply the fear-mongering about what people think it is. Sanctuary cities are municipalities where local law enforcement either do not cooperate with immigration officials or avoid any type of proactive immigration enforcement.

The U.S. District Court in Central California ruled recently ”[t]he federal databases that ICE relies on to issue its detainers are not reliable sources… for purposes of establishing probable cause… when an individual does not have a removal order or is not in ongoing removal proceedings.” Two years earlier the same court, in the same case, ruled the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department had “no authority to arrest individuals for civil immigration offenses” and that “detaining individuals beyond their date for release violated the individuals’ Fourth Amendment rights.”

Thanks to the Anti-Commandeering Doctrine, there is no requirement police enforce federal laws. However, people like the aforementioned authors want to force local police to use an ICE database, in violation of the Fourth Amendment, to indefinitely detain someone who should otherwise be released from police custody.

It saddens me that some people want to deny others the same freedoms they seek for themselves!