More than one in three Americans live in a state or city that refuses to cooperate with immigration enforcement by the federal government. These so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions prohibit local law enforcement agents from asking suspects about their immigration status and sometimes even refuse to detain violent criminals until Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can arrange for their deportation. They sacrifice their citizens’ safety and tax dollars out of misguided compassion.
Sanctuary jurisdictions began in Chicago in 1985, but it wasn’t until 2011 that action taken by former President Barack Obama triggered more widespread and controversial sanctuary policies. His administration’s “Secure Communities” program sought local governments’ help deporting non-citizens in U.S. prisons and other criminals. Under subsection 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, state and local law enforcement can be enlisted to help enforce immigration law if their local government agrees to it.
Defenders of sanctuary jurisdictions often point to the fact that immigrants, in general, commit fewer crimes than native-born citizens. But these defenders omit a crucial detail: the lower rate of immigrant crime is a result of their deportation before they can commit a second crime. Statistics reveal that most crimes are not the product of first-time offenders; rather, a small group of individuals re-offends repeatedly. American citizens who are recidivist criminals burden the U.S. criminal justice system. Non-citizen recidivism could be eliminated by U.S. immigration law, which mandates deportation after a serious crime — even for legal immigrants.
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Daniel Di Martino is a graduate fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a Ph.D. student in economics at Columbia University, and the founder of the Dissident Project, a speakers’ bureau for young immigrants from socialist countries.
Photo by Alxey Pnferov/Getty Images
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