There are approximately 200 “sanctuary cities” throughout the U.S. The term “sanctuary” originated in the 80’s when some churches gave protection to refugees arriving fleeing from the wars in Central America, where the U.S. government pursued and deported them.
By Corriente Obrera – U.S.
Today, Democrats and allies are using the term “sanctuary city” to presumably limit the police collaboration with Federal Immigration Authorities (ICE), among other things. It is not a legal term, it is not a law, and it is not clear how it is implemented. There is no official definition, and its policies can be established in local legislations at the discretion of cities or counties, and simply “give recommendations” to the police and sheriff not to report undocumented people to the immigration department (ICE).
The strange thing about this policy is that even though Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago are “sanctuary cities”, but raids have been carried out anyway. So, in reality, what is happening?
ICE raids continue, one after another
Not much difference has been seen between what happens in a “sanctuary city” and those that are not, since raids are taking place anyway. Only two weeks after taking position as president, on January 20 of 2017, Donald Trump ordered raids in different parts of the country, and thus, approximately 800 people were detained, including those in the raids in “sanctuary cities” of the states of Texas, Arizona, Florida, New York, and California (several dozens detained just in the city of Los Angeles, out of a total of 160 in the state).
Today, it is said that only people who committed crimes are being arrested, but the data in the newspapers reveal that a large number of people without criminal record have been detained and deported, and it is worth noting that, years ago, in the raids ordered by Obama, 65% of deportees were not delinquents. In a Univision report in July of 2017, an ICE representative said that they are notified after an arrested person is fingerprinted by either the police or the sheriff. Regardless of whether Democrats governors, mayors, or politicians of various occupations have declared a “sanctuary city” to supposedly protect immigrants, and although it sounds good and looks humanitarian, this is just an empty policy designed to deceive immigrant workers into believing they are protected, and thus tricked into making them easy prey to raids.
Sanctuary: only a disguise for Democrats
It’s neither the first nor the last time that Democrats engage in false promises and betray the people – as they have demonstrated every time that they were elected, by enforcing the most harmful measures in regard to the crisis that Immigrant workers suffer. The most recent one was the betrayal of illusions of immigrants by the Deporter in chief Obama, who, being a Democrat, deported more than 3 million, and never approved an immigration reform along his terms.
Today, immigrants face some of the most disturbed predators: Donald Trump, his cabinet, and the Republican Party, in front of the wild pack. And although it seems incredible, they also have the collaboration and complicity of the Democratic Party.
In order to better explain this last point, it is necessary to go into detail about what is the policy of a “sanctuary city,” since it is said that it gives protection to immigrants and also mentions that it does not allow Police agencies to collaborate with the ICE, and since it is supposed to “limit” raids in schools, workplaces, churches, and even in the street. But there are several elements that such policy deliberately does not explain, and these are:
- It cannot prevent raids from continuing;
- It leaves the decision to capture and deport to immigration judges chosen by Trump;
- Police agencies have the power to decide whether or not to report undocumented persons to the ICE;
- It criminalizes the majority, making them deportable;
- It deceives immigrants so they are easy prey.
I & II: A “sanctuary city” will only permit raids with permission of an immigration judge, but it does not explain that those judges are appointed by Trump and that they only report back to him. In addition, getting a court order by the ICE has never been complicated; that is to say, the raids will happen anyway.
III. It leaves it to the discretion of the police and other racist agencies to decide who will be and who will be not reported to the ICE.
IV. A simple traffic violation is enough to be criminalized. Many policemen, just because they are inside the country without documents, see an immigrant as criminal. Under this new modality, the vast majority of immigrants are being deported.
V. The worst of all is that Democrats use this “sanctuary city” policy to deceive and cause immigrants to believe that Democrat politicians will protect them, disarming them politically so they do not see the need to organize, fight back, and create a strong working and popular movement that is independent of the Democrat/Republican garbage, turning them into easy targets, victims of the raids.
We, from Corriente Obrera, insist on organizing ourselves in neighborhood committees, at work and school, in every possible place we can, to organize the defense and struggle of immigrant workers against the government attacks; we defend to create a broad movement, with working-class methods, that can take steps to advance and obtain full rights for all immigrants, including a mechanism to reunite families, and not be fooled by the propaganda on the “sanctuary cities”. It is only with organization and struggle that will we win full rights.
