Chicago, sanctuary city status and federal grants.

General General Discussion
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-chicago-immigrant-sanctuary-city-met-1115-20161115-story.html
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Monday promised to protect immigrants from deportation, even as president-elect Donald Trump has pledged to remove as many as 3 million immigrants who have criminal records and are living in the country illegally.
For more than three decades, Chicago has been a sanctuary city, where local laws prohibit government workers and police officers from asking about residents’ immigration status. The mayor said that tradition would continue.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/chicago-sues-over-sanctuary-city-threat/
Mayor Rahm Emanuel has taken his fight against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies to court, with Chicago becoming one of the first cities Monday to sue over what many U.S. cities argue are illegal bids to withhold public safety grants from so-called sanctuary cities.

Hours later, Attorney General Jeff Sessions hit back at Chicago, saying the Trump administration “will not simply give away grant dollars to city governments that proudly violate the rule of law and protect criminal aliens at the expense of public safety.”

“So it’s this simple: Comply with the law or forego taxpayer dollars,” he said in a toughly worded statement.

Chicago’s suit focuses on new conditions set by Sessions for cities to qualify for grant money. They include the sharing immigration-status records with federal agencies, providing 48-hours notice of a detainee’s release if immigration violations are suspected and giving federal agents unfettered access to jails.

“The government,” the lawsuit says, can’t “unilaterally” set new conditions that weren’t approved by Congress “and that would federalize local jails and police stations, mandate warrantless detentions in order to investigate for federal civil infractions, sow fear in local immigrant communities, and ultimately make the people of Chicago less safe.”

Chicago’s sanctuary policies date back to the mid-1980s and successive city councils have confirmed or expanded the protections.

The city prohibits police from providing federal Immigration and Customs officials access to people in police custody, unless they are wanted on a criminal warrant or have serious criminal convictions. Local police are also barred from allowing ICE agents to use their facilities for interviews or investigations and from responding to ICE inquiries or talking to ICE officials about a person’s custody status or release date.

City authorities say the policies help encourage residents of the immigrant community to inform police when they are victims of crimes.

I wonder how this will play out?

2

Like a dystopian movie…

3

Sanctuary cities are a strategy by a certain political party to add to their voting base.

That’s their “ethical stance” behind this.

4

The Trump administration should and will win this case in court. While the case moves through the court system, sanctuary cities should receive zero Federal tax dollars.

5

Like certain countries south of the Rio Grande, where local and federal law enforcement are not on the same team.

Yeah, how’s that theory working on the immigration-ban side of things? I can think of several cases where the Trump admin was legally in the right, and there was basically no non-frivolous argument against them, yet the courts barred the administration’s action.

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Well at least if they play the court battle out for a year or two Chicago, regardless of the outcome won’t get any money until it is over.

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So in other words same shit different day? I know cooperation is better in some places than it used to be. But, it ain’t like the locals play well with the Feds all the times, hell some local agencies don’t play well with their neighboring agencies.

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Even if the administration loses, I still ask with what army or police force does an activist judge compel compliance with their bench decree? :confused:

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The messaging on this is critical. They need ‘poster children’ examples of really bad guys being protected by these cities and make that the issue. Most people will assume that it is just a general sweep for illegals. When you point out it is criminals that these cities are keeping around and protecting, that changes the story.

Why can’t we criminalize overstaying visas and not being her legally? I know it would be tough to do now, but it seems like violating immigration and visa laws would be a felony?

10

Isn’t it federal marshals? As in the judge has an order for a politician and if they don’t do it, they get a bench warrant and arrest them and start going down the chain of command?

But I do like the “How many divisions does a judge have” angle.

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None, formally speaking. All the LE are part of the executive branch. But very few executive branch employees are going to knowingly violate a judge’s order, after weighing what they get for doing so (not much) and the risks of doing so (potential loss of job or even criminal charges, if the winds change).

We don’t really want to live in a country where it’s common or a good idea to disregard a judge’s order. However, we also don’t want a country where un-elected activist judges hijack the entire legal process and make a mockery of an election, the President, or the very concept of the rule of law. I’m all ears for any good solution that doesn’t break one of these rules.

N.B. this problem has its roots in the original 1789 Constitution, and Marbury v. Madison (1803) was simply the start of a long line of unsatisfying cases involving the issue.

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Chicago is one of the largest sanctuary cities in the U.S. Chicago has one of the highest per capita violent crime rates of any city in the U.S. Is there a correlation between the two issues?

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I doubt it. Most of the violent crime is perpetuated by gangs of kids born in the ghetto and raised to be psychopaths. Most illegal immigrants that I come in contact with in the city where I work commit non-violent crimes. Lots of traffic issues (driving without a license, hit and runs, DUIs, etc), and a few are involved in things like burglaries and thefts.

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http://www.kgw.com/news/woman-65-in-ne-portland-reports-sex-assault-break-in-and-car-burglary/459231264

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But what if you took that a step further and proposed that funding spent on noncitizen ileagal aliens would be better spent on fighting other crimes and criminals?

17

Hmmm, so what if the Governor of Illinois decided that he didn’t want a sanctuary City in his State?
I’m not sure but I still believe he controls some funding. The rest of Illinois might appreciate that.

18

I’d say your still reaching. The correlation doesn’t equal causation. I’d be willing to bet there are cities in CA that spend more money on illegals which have a lower murder rate. Not saying that removing the illegal aliens from the city wouldn’t allow the funding to be used in more productive ways, but it would not solve the violent crime issue, that is an issue that is likely only going to be changed by a cultural shift and leaders from top to local deciding they have had enough of the shit and pushing the gangs out. Until then Chiraq will continue to be a shithole.

19

Let me guess - you do not live in Illinois.
The State of Illinois just passed the first budget in two years, is much of a year late in paying their bills and the Republican Governor is barely able to execute the most basic elements of governing. The state-level politics is Venezuela North.

The most of the last several Illinois Governors have ended up in federal prison for a reason… The Governors have had to be pretty brazen in their corruption to get anything the Legislature did not already suck up. No evidence that present Gov. Rauner will live up to Blagovich in the corruption, but he is in a tough place. Chicago rules the state and no Governor has a snowballs chance to meaningfully address.

All that said, illegal aliens seem to often commit violent crime below the community baseline. In my area, they seem to regularly kill people drunk driving. There is an impressive track record, like the little girl run over in her backyard at 1030 in the morning by .16+.

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DUI, including DUI causing death and injury, seems to be one of the largest crime issues with the illegal population in Michigan also. But I suspect that there is probably more crime that simply goes unreported due to illegals being the victims, as well as the perps.

Anyway, it’s a bit of banter to discuss whether illegals are committing serious or minor crimes, or no additional crimes, but simply by being here illegally they are committing a crime. Hypothetically let’s say a conservative small town declares itself “Tax Cheat Sanctuary City” and states that any tax cheats wishing to live there will be protected from the IRS in all possible ways. Should this be respected? When some federal official declares that “tax cheat sanctuaries will not be tolerated!” should they be condemned as a bigoted anti-taxcheatist?