To Republicans Who Tout Local Control: Leave Sanctuary Cities Alone

In an effort to intimidate sanctuary cities, the Trump administration last week picked up undocumented immigrants who had various levels of criminal convictions across the country. That is ICE's job, and it has nothing to do with sanctuary cities. What Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions want is for sanctuary cities to detain and hand over to ICE people in state or local custody. However, several courts have held that "detainers," or requests from ICE to hold immigrants in custody after their release date, or those who may be in state or local custody, for example for minor infractions such as traffic violations or shoplifting, violate the Fourth Amendment. The people arrested last week were located by ICE in open society, not under state or local custody. Sanctuary cities do not interfere with federal officials from ICE. All they are asking is that ICE not interfere with them.