{"id":611296,"date":"2018-08-07T07:00:54","date_gmt":"2018-08-07T13:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=611296"},"modified":"2018-08-07T08:34:29","modified_gmt":"2018-08-07T14:34:29","slug":"cities-states-resist-and-assist-immigration-crackdown-in-new-ways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/08\/cities-states-resist-and-assist-immigration-crackdown-in-new-ways\/","title":{"rendered":"Cities, states resist \u2014 and assist \u2014 immigration crackdown in new ways"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_56542\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-56542\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-771x504.jpg\" alt=\"A statue outside the Roundhouse in Santa Fe.\" width=\"771\" height=\"504\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-771x504.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-336x220.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-768x502.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-1170x764.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A statue outside the Roundhouse in Santa Fe. New Mexico is among the states whose policymakers are exploring ways to push back against President Donald Trump&#8217;s immigration crackdown.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Austin recently took a new tack in the ongoing war between \u201csanctuary cities&#8221; and federal immigration authorities. Declaring itself a \u201cfreedom city,\u201d the Texas capital instructed its police officers to arrest fewer people for minor crimes \u2014 to prevent their fingerprints from going to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement \u2014 and to inform people that they may refuse a request to present their immigration papers.<\/p>\n<p>Though novel, Austin\u2019s gambit fits into a broader pattern: As the Trump administration this year ratcheted up its efforts to curb illegal immigration, cities and states experimented with new ways to resist \u2014 or assist \u2014 the crackdown.<\/p>\n<p>California declared itself a sanctuary state, prompting pushback from some of its counties. Connecticut, Illinois, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington also enacted statewide measures to limit law enforcement cooperation with immigration authorities, while New Mexico weighed stricter state oversight of immigrant detention facilities.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pewtrusts.org\/en\/research-and-analysis\/blogs\/stateline\/2018\/08\/03\/cities-states-resist-and-assist-immigration-crackdown-in-new-ways\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Stateline<\/a>, an initiative of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pewtrusts.org\/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Pew Charitable Trusts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Meanwhile, Iowa, North Carolina and Tennessee enacted anti-sanctuary laws requiring cities to cooperate with immigration authorities, and lawmakers in 16 other states tried but failed to do the same, including Virginia, where the majority Republican Legislature passed a bill and the governor, Democrat Ralph Northam, vetoed it. In Oregon, a group favoring a crackdown on illegal immigration put a measure on the November ballot that would undo that state\u2019s 1987 sanctuary law.<\/p>\n<p>Austin acted after courts largely upheld Texas\u2019 2017 anti-sanctuary law, which, among other things, explicitly allows local law enforcement officers to question the immigration status of people they detain or arrest.<\/p>\n<p>The state\u2019s Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, called the Austin policy part of a \u201cpattern of disrespect for the rule of law,\u201d and GOP Gov. Greg Abbott said the state\u2019s policy is a matter of public safety. \u201cTexas will not be complicit in endangering our citizens,\u201d he said. The state has pledged to defend any law enforcement agency that is sued for following the law.<\/p>\n<p>Despite state officials\u2019 fierce opposition to Austin\u2019s \u201cfreedom city\u201d declaration, one advocate for undocumented immigrants predicted the policy will spread to other Texas cities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a statewide effort because we live in an anti-immigrant state,\u201d said Yuridia Loera, a 22-year-old organizer with Austin\u2019s United We Dream network of unauthorized young people. Loera is among many youths who \u2014 brought to the United States illegally as children \u2014 live in constant fear of an arrest for minor crimes like driving without a license, which could start an immigration investigation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe cannot relax,\u201d Loera said. \u201cI live in Texas and I drive every day and I get goosebumps every day wondering if I\u2019ll get pulled over.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The divide in Texas between pro-immigrant cities on one side, and state officials and rural and suburban counties who want to crack down on illegal immigration on the other, is playing out in other states too.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe general trend is that Southern big cities are becoming more liberal than their state and suburbs, and less involved with [assisting federal officials with] immigration enforcement,\u201d said Randy Capps, research director for U.S. programs at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. \u201cSome of the suburbs, smaller cities and rural areas, especially in Texas and Georgia, are getting more involved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-611301\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/SanctuaryStateMap-771x750.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"771\" height=\"750\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/SanctuaryStateMap-771x750.png 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/SanctuaryStateMap-336x327.png 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/SanctuaryStateMap-768x747.png 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/SanctuaryStateMap-1170x1138.png 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/SanctuaryStateMap.png 1290w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Focus on detention, lawsuits<\/h3>\n<p>The recent uproar over the separation and detention of immigrant children has prompted many states and cities to seek more oversight of immigrant detention facilities, or even to restrict them within their borders.<\/p>\n<p>Since the beginning of this year, California has barred cities, counties and local law enforcement agencies from entering into new contracts with federal authorities to detain undocumented immigrants. New Mexico lawmakers have\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpoliticalreport.com\/860580\/legislators-hold-hearing-hear-public-comments-on-private-prisons-that-hold-immigrants\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">scrutinized living conditions in immigration detention<\/a>, and are considering barring counties from signing new contracts to house immigration prisoners. New York enacted a law enabling immigrant\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.governor.ny.gov\/news\/governor-cuomo-signs-legislation-increase-protections-immigrant-children-new-york-state\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">parents facing deportation to designate caretakers<\/a>\u00a0for their children, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, signed an order providing free legal services for immigrants detained at airports.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Many big cities with large immigrant populations and left-leaning voters have enacted sanctuary policies on principle \u2014 or out of political expedience. Some smaller cities and counties, however, have done so out of fear of lawsuits. In some cases, courts have ruled that local governments violated prisoners\u2019 civil rights by delaying their release at the request of federal immigration officials.<\/p>\n<p>Since the election of Donald Trump as president in 2016, the number of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fairus.org\/issue\/publications-resources\/state-sanctuary-policies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sanctuary cities<\/a>\u00a0has increased by nearly two-thirds to 564, according to a May study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a conservative group.<\/p>\n<p>The battle between pro-sanctuary and anti-sanctuary jurisdictions likely will be decided in the courts, said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors less immigration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cActivists in local jurisdictions on both sides are pushing it where they think they can win,\u201d Vaughan said. \u201cThe pro-sanctuary side is more activated and animated now because they believe there is too much enforcement under Trump, but there will always be resistance to sanctuary policies.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Creative opposition<\/h3>\n<p>In California, some right-leaning cities and counties have gotten creative in trying to resist the state\u2019s push to halt cooperation with deportations and arrests.<\/p>\n<p>Among other things, California\u2019s sanctuary law bars local police from giving ICE any nonpublic information on prisoners, such as release dates, that would allow prisoners to be picked up for possible deportation. The U.S. Department of Justice, supported by Orange County and San Diego County (though not the city of San Diego, which supports the sanctuary law), sued to stop California\u2019s sanctuary law.<\/p>\n<p>Last month a federal court upheld the state\u2019s ban on communication with ICE, but Orange and San Diego counties have found a workaround: Instead of directly informing ICE, they now make public the release dates for everybody, including ICE, to see.<\/p>\n<p>Though U.S. District Judge John Mendez dismissed the broader lawsuit against California\u2019s sanctuary law, he did allow the U.S. Department of Justice to proceed with its challenge to California\u2019s prohibition on ICE entering nonpublic areas of workplaces.<\/p>\n<p>The suit to stop California\u2019s sanctuary law was part of a broader push by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department to crack down on jurisdictions with sanctuary policies. The agency issued a series of letters in January and in April threatening California and some cities across the country with lawsuits if they didn\u2019t cooperate fully with immigration authorities.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, in a separate case, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals just last week ruled that the Trump administration overstepped its authority in the president\u2019s January 2017 executive order threatening to withhold funds from sanctuary cities. The court ruled that since Congress controls spending, the executive branch doesn\u2019t have the authority to withhold funding based on its policy priorities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The divide in Texas between pro-immigrant cities on one side, and state officials and rural and suburban counties on the other, is playing out in other states too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56542,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[140,3307,107,116],"class_list":["post-611296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-donald-trump","tag-roundhouse","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}