No. of Recommendations: 8
Then change the law. Don't ignore it. If there is no consensus to change the law, then democracy has spoken, and comply with the law as it is.
But that's exactly what sanctuary locales are doing - following the law.
There are federal laws regarding immigration. Those are for the Feds to enforce, not the states. Further, there is a court case (cited previously in the last few days) that says that state and local law enforcement cannot be compelled to enforce federal law.
There are state laws regarding the incarceration and release of those accused and/or convicted of crimes. Notably, once a sentence has been served or bond has been posted, the person MUST be released. Continuing to hold a person after a judge has ordered their release is NOT following the law.
Where these two collide is the Feds asking for notification of the pending release of certain people - typically an undocumented foreigner. States and cities are not required to respond to these requests. They are free to pick and choose which detainees they will acknowledge to the Feds and which they won't. You can be pretty certain that almost every locality will let the feds know when a felon of foreign nationality is going to be released. Yes, even sanctuary cities. Those are people almost everyone on the right and left agree should be deported. Where these requests are unlikely to be honored is when someone merely accused of a petty crime is released.
You've already heard the arguments pro and con. A sanctuary city would not notify the Feds of that release, as they believe their locality is better off without that Federal intervention. If the Feds want to put the time in to read the publicly available information, they can pick up the person on their own. But the locality isn't going to hang on to that person a minute longer than legally allowed just to make it easy on the Feds. That would be using the local resources to enforce federal law, which some localities have chosen not to do. And that is following the existing law with no changes necessary. Other localities will gladly hold those folks for the feds. It's their choice. And they are also following the law, because the law only says a locality can't be forced to enforce federal law. That leaves open the option to enforce it anyway.
--Peter
