![\"The](\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/LCPS-336x235.jpg\")
Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p>
The Las Cruces Public Schools administration building.<\/p><\/div>\n
On Tuesday, members of the\u00a0Las Cruces Public Schools Board of Education unanimously approved a resolution<\/a> calling for the creation of a task force to “study and recommend consistent policy language that can be used by the City, County, and public schools in the creation of ‘sanctuary status’ for residents and students.”<\/p>\n The resolution praises\u00a0outgoing President Barack Obama\u2019s\u00a0Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals<\/a> (DACA) executive order, which allows\u00a0some immigrants without legal status who came to the United States as children\u00a0to remain in the country\u00a0and work here. DACA “will enable our qualifying students to attend college, work, and pursue a career and thus encourage them to do well in school and to graduate,” the resolution states.<\/p>\n It also praises Obama’s other immigration-related executive order, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans<\/a> (DAPA), which would allow\u00a0some immigrants without legal status who have children living in the United States legally to remain in the country\u00a0and work here. DAPA is facing legal challenges and has not been implemented<\/a>.<\/p>\n DAPA, the school board’s resolution states, “will enable our qualifying parents to obtain better employment and provide more economic security and stability for their children and thus more support for their education.”<\/p>\n Immigrants without legal status have been of particular concern to many as Trump prepares to take office. He has pledged\u00a0to rescind<\/a>\u00a0DACA, though he has also waffled\u00a0on that pledge<\/a>. He\u00a0has threatened to cut federal funding for cities that shelter immigrants without legal status. And he\u00a0has committed to deporting millions.<\/p>\n In response, some local governments\u00a0have declared themselves sanctuaries that won’t cooperate with federal immigration officials and will fight deportation efforts in their communities. The City of Santa Fe<\/a> and the Santa Fe Public Schools<\/a> are among them.<\/p>\n In Las Cruces, the school board’s resolution calls for the creation of a task force that includes representatives from the City of Las Cruces, Do\u00f1a Ana County, all three school districts in the county, three nonprofit organizations that work on immigration issues, area legislators, and two members of the public.<\/p>\n The task force would create “sanctuary” policies\u00a0all area governments could enact and report back to the government agencies’ policymaking bodies in a joint session by May 2017.<\/p>\n Whether the school board will find the other government agencies open to the effort isn’t clear. Do\u00f1a Ana County already has a policy that\u00a0prohibits the county from requesting or sharing the immigration status of people, making county services or benefits dependent on immigration status, or “cooperating, in one’s official capacity, with any (U.S.) Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Customs and Border Protection investigation, detention or arrest procedures, public or clandestine, relating to alleged violations of the civil provisions of federal immigration law.”<\/p>\n But the policy was implemented by the current commissioners. Come January, three of five\u00a0will leave office and be replaced by new commissioners who won election in November.<\/p>\n