When Will Americans Find True Sanctuary in Our Cities?

The online Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the term “Sanctuary” in part, as being: “A place of refuge and protection”

The term sanctuary conjures up the image of a place of safety and
security.  Incredibly, there are leaders of a number of cities and
states who are declaring that illegal aliens will be not only tolerated
by local law enforcement but will be shielded from discovery from the
federal government.  In such “Sanctuary Cities” illegal aliens are able
to go about their daily lives without concern about being arrested or
removed from the United States.  Incredibly, even the federal government
has all but declared the United States to be a “Sanctuary Country!”

It is truly remarkable that it is illegal to shield an illegal alien
from detection or aid, abet encourage or induce an alien to enter the
United States in violation of law or to remain thereafter illegally.

Here are the statutes under the Immigration and Nationality Act that
address the issues of concealing, harboring, encouraging or inducing
aliens to enter the United States in violation of law or reside within
the United States thereafter in reckless disregard of their violations
of law:

Title 8, U.S.C. § 1324(a)
defines several distinct offenses related to aliens. Subsection
1324(a)(1)(i)-(v) prohibits alien smuggling, domestic transportation of
unauthorized aliens, concealing or harboring unauthorized aliens,
encouraging or inducing unauthorized aliens to enter the United States,
and engaging in a conspiracy or aiding and abetting any of the preceding
acts. Subsection 1324(a)(2) prohibits bringing or attempting to bring
unauthorized aliens to the United States in any manner whatsoever, even
at a designated port of entry. Subsection 1324(a)(3).

Encouraging/Inducing — Subsection
1324(a)(1)(A)(iv) makes it an offense for any person who — encourages or
induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States,
knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such coming to, entry,
or residence is or will be in violation of law.

Conspiracy/Aiding or Abetting —
Subsection 1324(a)(1)(A)(v) expressly makes it an offense to engage in a
conspiracy to commit or aid or abet the commission of the foregoing
offenses.

Recently, Washington, D.C., the city that encompasses our nation’s
Capitol, has now formalized its sanctuary policies.  The mayor of
Washington, D.C. has signed an executive order implementing a “don’t
ask- don’t-tell” policy that prohibits police from inquiring about the
immigration status of people they encounter during the course of their
official duties.

Stop and give this madness some thought.  The purpose for our
nation’s immigration laws is to protect our nation and our citizens from
the presence of aliens who pose a threat to the safety and well being
of our nation and our citizens.  Aliens who evade the inspections
process leave no record of their entry into the United States and there
is no reliable way of knowing their true identities, backgrounds or
potential affiliation with criminal or terrorist organizations.  There
is no way of knowing what motivated them to run our nation’s borders-
for example, if they are fugitives from justice in another country who
committed serious crimes and are on the run.

The easiest and most definitive way to prove just how important the
enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws are is to review the
section of law that delineates the statutory reasons why an alien should
be excluded from the United States.

Title 8, United States Code section 212
is section of law that enumerates the various categories of aliens who,
under the Immigration and Nationality Act, are supposed to be prevented
from entering the United States and are supposed to be removed if they
are found here:

Please take the time to review the contents of this section of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

Among the categories of aliens who are supposed to be kept out of the
United States are aliens with dangerous communicable diseases, aliens
who suffer serious mental illness and are prone to violence, aliens who
are convicted felons, aliens who fugitives from justice in other
countries, aliens who are human traffickers and drug smugglers, aliens
who are war criminals and aliens who have committed human rights
violations.  Also aliens who are engaged in terrorism and espionage are
among those who are, by law, supposed to be prevented from entering our
country and are supposed to be removed if they manage to evade the
Border Patrol or otherwise enter the United States.

It is extremely important to understand that these laws apply equally
to all individuals irrespective of race, religion or ethnicity.

Our nation’s immigration laws make absolutely no distinctions about
people where race, religion or ethnicity are concerned.  The only
distinction is between people who are citizens of the United States and
those who are not and who, under our laws, are referred to as “Aliens.”

Indeed, the term “Alien” is defined under our laws as simply being
any person who is not a citizen or national of the United States.  This
definition is completely compatible and comparable to similar terms used
by virtually every other country on this planet to describe people who
are present in those countries but are not citizens of those countries.

The biggest problem with the term “Alien” from the perspective of the
open borders advocates, is that this term provides something they
attempt to avoid in any way and every way possible–clarity!

Similarly, the use of the term “Sanctuary” to describe jurisdictions
where illegal aliens are enabled to operate with impunity are not true
sanctuaries- they are places where law abiding people, citizens and
aliens alike, are at great danger.  Our nation is currently confronting
the exploding numbers of violent transnational gang members including
members of MS-13, the Mexican drug cartels and other such gangs from the
four corners of our planet.  This growing menace was clearly laid out
in a newly released FBI Gang Threat Assessment.

Additionally, the threat of terrorist attacks continues to pose a
real threat to the safety and security of our nation and our citizens. 
As the “9/11 Commission Staff Report on Terrorist Travel” noted in the very first paragraph of the preface to that report:

“It is perhaps obvious to state that terrorists
cannot plan and carry out attacks in the United States if they are
unable to enter the country. Yet prior to September 11, while there were
efforts to enhance border security, no agency of the U.S. government
thought of border security as a tool in the counterterrorism arsenal.
Indeed, even after 19 hijackers demonstrated the relative ease of
obtaining a U.S. visa and gaining admission into the United States,
border security still is not considered a cornerstone of national
security policy. We believe, for reasons we discuss in the following
pages, that it must be made one.”

Here is something else to consider:  criminal aliens have two
advantages over American criminals. They can easily flee from the United
States when they believe that law enforcement authorities are coming
after them and they can threaten to do harm to the family members of
members of the immigrant communities if these immigrants dare speak with
the police or refuse to aid these criminals and are coerced into
committing crimes at the behest of these criminals.

This is what makes the often cited claim that anyone who wants our
nation’s borders secured against illegal entry and our immigration laws
effectively enforced from within the interior of the United States is
“Anti-Immigrant” is a bald faced lie!  The failures of the government to
secure the border and enforce the immigration laws create a clear
danger to everyone in the United States but among those who are placed
most at risk are the members of the immigrant community.

When a police officer encounters a suspect of a crime or when a
police officer stops a motorist who has violated vehicle and traffic
laws, the first order of business is to properly identify that person to
make certain that he (she) is not a fugitive who is wanted for other
crimes and to also determine risk of flight.  In fact, the two factors
that are at issue in a bail hearing are danger to the community and risk
of flight.  As an INS special agent, I was often called upon to testify
in state and federal court about the immigration status and background
of aliens who were arrested for committing felonies.  Clearly an alien
who had been previously deported, failed to show up for immigration
hearings, used multiple false identities and provided false addresses
when arrested by immigration law enforcement personnel has already
established a clear record of “risk of flight.”  This is vital
information that must be provided to any judge or magistrate who is
considering what bail, if any, is appropriate in criminal cases.

All too often we hear of individuals who are arrested for committing a
crime are released by a judge and then commit additional crimes–often
crimes of extreme violence and the victims or their family members
understandably demand to know why such a criminal was released.

Perhaps such criminals would not be released if pertinent material to
the issue of risk of flight was made available to the judge.

It is nothing short of Orwellian to refer to jurisdictions where
immigration laws are utterly ignored in this particularly perilous era
as being “Sanctuary Cities!”

Such cities should be referred to by a far more honest and
descriptive nomenclature perhaps “High Risk” or “Gang Magnets” would be
far more appropriate.

Certainly “Sanctuary Cities” fail to place the concerns and needs of law abiding Americans and resident aliens first.