San Francisco – Sanctuary City

San Francisco is a sanctuary city for many people — LGBT, the free-spirited, and illegal immigrants.  Recently, San Francisco’s status as a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants has come under fire for how illegal immigrant criminals — specifically juveniles — are handled.  The city has been sending some of the immigrants back to their home countries (at taxpayer expense, of course) and sending some to halfway houses in Southern California.  Mayor Newsom said yesterday, “I don’t have the authority here.  I have a bully pulpit.  The courts have authority here.”  A juvenile court judge disputes that.

Let’s talk for a second about “sanctuary cities.”  The United States professes to be a nation of laws.  Laws are being broken (granted, it’s a civil — not criminal — violation) and governments are aiding and abetting people in breaking the law.  San Francisco is only one of these cities — Washington, DC; New York, Los Angeles (see more here) are all sanctuary cities.  San Francisco has even begun issuing city ID cards to illegal immigrants.  How does this qualify as upholding the law?  Well, the obvious, correct and short answer is that it doesn’t.

But how can San Francisco justify sending people back at city taxpayer expense?  I truly don’t understand it.  It’s unethical, immoral and should be unlawful as well.  It’s a federal issue in any case.  Illegal immigrants should be turned over to the feds without question.  (UPDATE: Newsom has announced that this practice will end.  He’s apparently gotten a little heat.)

Illegal immigration is a huge problem.  Largely poor people (yes, I know I’m talking in large generalities here) are pouring across our southern border.  They aren’t educated, have few prospects other than menial work, and are a net drain on society.  They contribute to overcrowding of the jails, emergency rooms (many, especially in Los Angeles, have had to close), freeways, and schools.  That’s just the honest ones, the people who are coming to the United States — illegally — to try to make a better life for themselves and their families.  I applaud that.  Everyone wants a better life and wants their children to be better off than they were.  I want that for my son.

Then there is the criminal element.  There are gang members, drug dealers, and other criminals.  We (especially in California) shouldn’t have to deal with that and shouldn’t have to pay that bill.  And what about the security threat from terrorists?  It’s about the easiest thing in the world to cross into the United States from Canada or Mexico.

As I said above, immigration is a federal issue.  But the federal government has left the border unsecured.  A nation can’t be sovereign if it doesn’t enforce its borders.  So I say let the people who want to be here come.  But they must do it legally.  It’s only common sense and only fair to everyone else who has to get in line to come here.  I’m not advocating sending everyone back to their home countries.  That wouldn’t be right or practical.  But the borders have to be secured before any amnesty should be discussed.  And true immigration reform — reform that acknowledges the realities of the world — needs to be enacted.