A threat by Donald Trump to send undocumented immigrants to sanctuary cities has critics welcoming the plan saying that house these cities were intended to be used under law. Trump announced the proposal is strongly being weighed by the White House.
Several politicians and human rights advocates welcomed Trump’s threat.
“The city would be prepared to welcome these immigrants just as we have embraced our immigrant communities for decades,” Mayor Jim Kenney from Philadelphia – a sanctuary city – said. “This White House plan demonstrates the utter contempt that the Trump administration has for basic human dignity.”
Mayor Libby Schaaf of Oakland – also a sanctuary city – “condemned the president for focusing his immigration agenda on keeping immigrants out of the United States,” Common Dreams reported.
“I am proud to be the mayor of a sanctuary city,” Schaaf said on CNN. “We believe sanctuary cities are safer cities. We embrace the diversity in Oakland and we do not think it’s appropriate for us to use local resources to do the government’s failed immigration work.”
Sanctuary cities have laws, policies and ordinances that “obstruct immigration enforcement and shield criminals from ICE,” the Center for Immigration Studies defined. This is carried out “either by refusing to or prohibiting agencies from complying with ICE detainers, imposing unreasonable conditions on detainer acceptance, denying ICE access to interview incarcerated aliens, or otherwise impeding communication or information exchanges between their personnel and federal immigration officers.”
Trump blamed his plan to send undocumented immigrants to sanctuary cities on Democrats and the “radical left” for not working “to change our very dangerous immigration laws,” he tweeted.
Due to the fact that Democrats are unwilling to change our very dangerous immigration laws, we are indeed, as reported, giving strong considerations to placing Illegal Immigrants in Sanctuary Cities only….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 12, 2019
….The Radical Left always seems to have an Open Borders, Open Arms policy – so this should make them very happy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 12, 2019
“Let’s not concede that having refugees in our cities is something to be threatened by,” Julia Carrie Wong, reporter for the Guardian said in a Tweet.
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