Opinion: Cities are under no requirement to help out ICE
Sheet music and lyrics to Woody Guthrie song, Deportees (1948).
Recent immigration enforcement activity in San Jose has led some to wonder precisely what role—if any—cities or counties are supposed to play in assisting—or not—federal authorities. Attorney Sara Ramey, in The Hill, says cities have no legal requirement to cooperate with ICE, excerpted below.
Enforcing our immigration laws is the federal government’s responsibility. Local government has no legal obligation to assist and, for various reasons, many local governments have decided that acting as immigration agents will not increase public safety in their communities.
Whether one agrees or disagrees, deciding the best way to protect public safety is a decision that local communities are free to make. This is an authority that has been delegated to them under our federalist system.
What sanctuary legislation does varies by community but often involves not asking immigration status or detaining people solely due to immigration status, which several courts have ruled to be illegal. These policies do not protect criminals, who are still charged, detained, convicted, and sentenced as appropriate.
For example, the California Values Act, or SB 54, mentioned by Homen and effective starting Jan. 1, prohibits local officials from asking immigration status and holding immigrants on ICE detainers, as well as limits immigration enforcement at schools, hospitals, and courthouse. It still allows federal immigration agents to interview those being held in local custody and allows reporting to ICE of any immigrant with a previous conviction from a list of about 800 crimes.
Sanctuary policies do not prevent the federal government from doing its job enforcing our immigration laws. They simply represent a decision to limit participation in ICE’s work.
Local authorities, who know their communities best and are accountable to those communities, should be the ones to make the decision on how to ensure their public safety.
Sara Ramey is an immigration attorney at the San Antonio based NGO RAICES, where she represents asylum seekers before the Immigration Court, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
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