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Mark Shaffer
Mr. Rogers
Government
16 October 2016
Abolishment of Sanctuary Cities Act
The debate over illegal immigration has been going on for more than a hundred years and
the nation is still divided. There are many ideas on what to do about illegal immigrants. People
debate how we should treat them, what their rights are, and if they should be allowed to stay. The
two major ideas are that they should either be accepted in the united states and be allowed to
work and live here, or that they should get their citizenship or theyll be deported. Now due to
these opposing beliefs there are a lot of different ways that people and cities are dealing with
illegal immigrants. One of these ways is through whats called a Sanctuary City. These are
cities that generally have policies that limit the amount that law enforcement and other
government organizations can do to help the federal government on immigration matters. The
Federal government should strip funds from all cities enacting sanctuary city policies because
these policies encourage illegal immigration, they undermine federal enforcement, and they
allow criminals to roam free among civilians.
These cities and their policies on illegal aliens are openly encouraging illegal
immigration. These cities, places like San Francisco, New York, and even Dallas are allowing
people who are not legally citizens to live and work there and therefore stating that illegal
immigrants are welcomed. Now because of these polices, six states accounted for 59% of
unauthorized immigrants in 2014: California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey and

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Illinois. (Krogstad, Jens Manuel, Jeffrey S. Passel, and DVera Cohn). More than 50% of the
nation's immigrants live in these areas and all of these states have at least one large sanctuary
city, the large sanctuary city in these states attracts illegal immigrants looking for a safe haven.
There are around 11 million illegal aliens residing in the US, a 4 million increase since 2002.
Unauthorized immigrants are entering the Unites States at a rate of around 700,000 per year
("Homeland Security |."). These numbers show the effects of what this open invite from certain
cities has done. The percentage of illegal immigrants has risen from 3.0% in 2001 to 3.7% in
2010 (Illegal Immigration, Population Estimates in the United States). The numbers are going to
keep growing and it's estimated that in 2020 there will be at least 1 million more undocumented
immigrants. These cities are creating laws and policies that will continue to invite illegal
immigrants.
The laws that are put into place in order for these sanctuary cities to operate blatantly
undermine the federal government and its duty to handle illegal immigration. Pursuant to 434
of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA,
P.L. 104-193) and 642 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of
1996 (IIRIRA, P.L. 104-208), states and localities may not limit their governmental entities or
officers from maintaining records regarding a persons immigration status, or bar the exchange
of such information with any federal, state, or local entity ("Policy Archive - Public Policy
Research Online). This quote shows how these Sanctuary policies are going directly against the
federal immigration law, by not disclosing that information, these cities are hindering the work
of the ICE and other federal immigration offices. An argument could be made that sanctuary
cities are actually guilty of committing a felony under the provisions of, Title 8, U.S.C. 1324,

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which deems it is a felony to aid, abet, encourage or induce aliens to enter our country illegally
or to conceal, harbor or shield aliens who are illegally present in the United States (Officers, By
Immigration). These sanctuary cities are not only going against the federal government by
releasing illegal immigrants, but they are ignoring the governments direct requests. In the first
nine months of last year, sanctuary communities across the country refused 8,811 requests by
Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold illegal immigrants in local police custody,
according to recent testimony by US Senator Chuck Grassley ("Sanctuary Cities Defy
Immigration Law). The policies of these sanctuaries - intentional or not - are going directly
against the federal government. ICE identified at least 165 cities and counties that had specific
policies limiting cooperation on immigration enforcement. Researchers on both sides of the
immigration issue have found more than 300 local jurisdictions that have such policies ("What
Exactly Are sanctuary Cities in Immigration Policy?"). The federal government has created
and passed laws in order to curb illegal immigration and these cities are finding loopholes in
order to directly disobey the federal law. The ideals of Title 8 strictly state that it is illegal to
encourage and aid illegal aliens and sanctuary cities guilty of doing both.
These sanctuary policies have invited criminals to roam among the civilian population of
these cities. These policies not only ignore federal law by sheltering these unauthorized aliens,
but they also ignore their duty to report any citizenship status from people who have committed
felonies. Now because they do not report that these people are here illegally, they allow them to
go back into the world and possibly cause more damage, this is not to be taken that all crimes are
because of illegal immigrants, but there are numbers to prove that they do have a large part in
crime. ICE data shows that from January 1 to September 30, 2014 around 9,295 criminal aliens

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were released. 5,947 (62%) of those released had a significant prior criminal history, 58% had a
prior felony charges or convictions, 37% had serious misdemeanor charges, and 5% had multiple
prior misdemeanors (Officers, By Immigration). These criminals are being released back into
normal society even though they are dangerous and here illegally. A large amount of the
detainees that are released end up back in police custody. The GAOs study population had
been arrested close to 1.7 million times and committed 3 million offenses, averaging about 7
arrests and 12 offenses per criminal alien, of those released, 1,900 were later rearrested a total of
4,300 times on 7,500 different offenses (Spakovsky, Hans A. Von). The local government of
these cities is letting these criminals go back out into the world and cause more harm. Five of the
big six states mentioned previously have the highest rate of illegal immigration crimes. During
those years, criminal aliens accounted for 38% of all murder convictions in the five states of
California, Texas, Arizona, Florida and New York, while illegal aliens constitute only 5.6% of
the total population in those states, and that 38% represents 7,085 murders out of the total of
18,643. (@BreitbartNews). These laws and systems of these sanctuaries have gotten people
killed and they will continue to get people hurt if there isn't a stop soon.
There are a lot of arguments from the opposing side of the debate, ideas and statements
that try to refute the three statements above. The first counter-point is that there are not that many
sanctuary cities, the argument is that there are only so many Sanctuary cities so how could they
really be doing that much harm, how could they be raising illegal immigration. In less than a
year 340 sanctuary cities, counties and states around the U.S. released 9,295 alien offenders that
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was seeking to deport (@JudicialWatch.). Most
people believe that there aren't that many sanctuaries, people know places like San Francisco and

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Miami are and so they assume that there are only a few big cities and areas where these policies
exist, that is obviously not the case. The second argument is that these illegal immigrants aren't
the only people committing crimes, now this may seem like a sound argument, surely there are
thousands of other people, US citizens that are criminals too. However when you look at the
statistics of how many people are here legally and how many people are citizens, the percentage
of crimes committed by just unauthorized aliens is astounding. While they represent just 3.5%
of the U.S. population, undocumented immigrants represented 7% of federal prison sentences
following convictions on charges of sexual abuse, 9% of murders, 12% of assaults and 30% of
kidnappings in 2013 ("United States Sentencing Commission."). The crimes dont stop, there
are many more cases where illegal immigrants are the ones to blame, and its not the illegal
immigrant population as a whole, its the illegal immigrants who have been convicted and have
been released by sanctuary cities. ICE has released onto U.S. streets another 30,558 criminal
illegal immigrants with a combined 79,059 criminal convictions including 86 homicides, 186
kidnappings, and thousands of sexual assaults, domestic violence assaults and DUIs, Vaughan
said (Zimmerman, Malia). These stats show how even though the illegal population is smaller
than the legal, they still account for a large amount of the crimes. So yes, there are a lot of people
who are completely legal citizens that commit crimes, but unauthorized immigrants are
committing crimes as well.
The federal government needs to put a stop to these sanctuary policies, they need to strip
the cities funding until these cities have decided to obey the federal law. These policies must be
stopped because they invite and aid illegal immigrants, they go directly against federal law, and
they release thousands of criminals per year back into cities. The immigration debate has been

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going on for long enough, there is not a chance that this nation finally comes to a compromise if
there is no resolution soon. This bill will hopefully deter large amounts of illegal immigrants
from coming into this country. The federal government needs to consider the consequences of
ignoring these policies and make a decision. We need to find a solution to this issue and vote it
into law before its too late.

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Works Cited
Allport, Alan. Immigration Policy. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2005. Print.

@BreitbartNews. "Illegal Alien Crime Accounts for over 30% of Murders in Many States Breitbart." Breitbart News. N.p., 08 Aug. 2015. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.

Geography, By. "United States Sentencing Commission." United States Sentencing Commission.
N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.

"Homeland Security |." DHS Secretary Speeches. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.

"Illegal Immigration, Population Estimates in the United States, 1969-2014 - Illegal Immigration
- ProCon.org." ProConorg Headlines. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.

@JudicialWatch. "Sanctuary Cities Ignore ICE Orders to Free 9,295 Criminal Aliens - Judicial
Watch." Judicial Watch Sanctuary Cities Ignore ICE Orders to Free 9295 Criminal Aliens
Comments. N.p., 13 Oct. 2015. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.

Krogstad, Jens Manuel, Jeffrey S. Passel, and DVera Cohn. "5 Facts about Illegal Immigration
in the U.S." Pew Research Center RSS. N.p., 20 Sept. 2016. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.

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Officers, By Immigration. "1907. Title 8, U.S.C. 1324(a) Offenses." U.S. Department of Justice.
N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.

"PolicyArchive - Public Policy Research Online." PolicyArchive - Public Policy Research

Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.

"Sanctuary Cities Defy Immigration Law - The Boston Globe." BostonGlobe.com. N.p., 31
July 2015. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.

Spakovsky, Hans A. Von. "America's Sanctuary City Nightmare." The National Interest. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2016.

"Sanctuary Cities Defy Immigration Law - The Boston Globe." BostonGlobe.com. N.p., 31
July 2015. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.

"What Exactly Are sanctuary Cities in Immigration Policy?" Washington Post. The
Washington Post, n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.

Zimmerman, Malia. "Elusive Crime Wave Data Shows Frightening Toll Of Illegal Immigrant
Criminals." Fox News. FOX News Network, 16 Sept. 2015. Web. 26 Oct. 2016.