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There are many policies that simultaneously hurt and help people. However, this policy, the sanctuary policy, only hurts America’s communities, and helps America’s criminals. This policy has been around a long time in America, though many do not know that the sanctuary policy dates back even before America came into being, all the way back to the time of antiquity during the Biblical times. During the Biblical times sanctuary cities were put into place by the law of the Torah, and was known as a place for murderers and criminals of all sorts to flee to, so they could escape the punishments of their crime.
America’s sanctuary cities are no different. Democrats will argue that it protects the down-trodden and persecuted civilians of a third-world country fleeing for protection of the United States, but when in fact, the sanctuary city policy that is in existence now, works to harbor the criminals and gang members of another country. Furthermore, the definition of the policy itself says that there is nothing the United States government can do about it.
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As stated in the Fair Federation for American Immigration Reform, “Sanctuary policies are laws, ordinances, resolutions, executive actions, or any initiatives that prohibit local officials from inquiring, acting on, or reporting an individuals immigrations status.” (Sanctuary Policy is Bad Public Policy, 2016). There are many forms in which sanctuary cities destroy communities, but there are three that hold the most weight of all; Illegal immigrants of sanctuary cities inflict pain on innocent people, steal from communities, and sets up a preset to break the law.
To the contrary, the democrats argue that sanctuary cities were created to protect the innocent and improve the communities.
By having sanctuary cities, they believe that it promotes new immigrants to reside in an area that won’t threaten their families from being deported. Additionally, they believe that by having this policy it brings about a growing economy by the increase of the work force workers, coupled with the consumption of local products and services in the sanctuary jurisdiction. Furthermore, they believe that sanctuary cities help new immigrants to root themselves in our country and work on becoming a citizen without fearing that they will be deported for a minor speeding ticket. They also say it helps make sanctuary cities safer by providing protection for immigrants from the law, that there are more that come forward and report crimes in the area making the community safer. In other words they believe that without this policy, immigrants would not report crime when they see it, for fear that they will be reported and then deported. Correspondingly, they think the community saves money because in sanctuary cities they don’t have to detain immigrants longer than necessary. As the article The Effects of Sanctuary Policy on Crime and the Economy states, “By keeping out of federal immigration enforcement, sanctuary counties are keeping families together—and when households remain intact and individuals can continue contributing, this strengthens local economies” (Wong, T. 2017).
However, this could not be further from what is really conspiring in these sanctuary jurisdictions. When those who favor sanctuary cities claim that the crime is lower because of their statistics, they don’t take into account of the unknown population of illegal immigrants. Since these people don’t technically exist because they do not have record of them living here, their deaths among themselves would not show up on any statistic. Additionally, all illegal immigrants do not stay put inside the sanctuary cities. They move about and travel outside the sanctuary city limits. With our ease of transportation of cars, buses, and trains, it is not uncommon for an illegal immigrant to migrate much further from the original destination of their sanctuary city. Once outside of the jurisdiction, there is no accounting for acts of crime committed by these illegal immigrants. Thus, it is impossible to keep accurate account of the crimes committed by illegal immigrants outside of their jurisdiction: There are no true statistics or real account for the deaths that have happened by these illegal aliens that are protected by the sanctuary city policy. Though many have tried to be as accurate as possible, it is impossible to achieve this because of the enormous amount of unaccounted illegal immigrants that have migrated to these sanctuary cities.
The opposing view of sanctuary cities do have a valid point that there are more illegal immigrants that report crimes in sanctuary cities. Without these laws of protection illegal immigrants would be afraid to call the police to report a crime because they themselves could then be subjected to investigation as witness to the crime, but then discovered of their illegal status in the United States, resulting in arrest and deportation. So, it is true that this policy helps in this account. However, what is not stated, is that sanctuary cities also have more unaccounted crimes by illegal immigrants than reported ones, which the supporting side of sanctuary cities will never admit to. Many of these crimes by illegal immigrants that remain unaccounted for, are due to the sanctuary officials letting them go even though they have committed serious felonies. As the report by Homeland Security states, “In Fiscal Year 2017, more than 2,300 [illegal immigrants] were released because of that court decision, including more than 1,700 criminal aliens” (To Make America Safe Again, We Must End Sanctuary Cities and Remove Criminal Aliens, 2018).
These sanctuary cities not only have a massive hole in their statistics, but they are also flawed in the way they handle illegal immigrants. As stated in the article Massachusetts Sanctuary Policies Freed Hundreds of Criminals Aliens in 10-Week Period states that an illegal alien was, 'Arrested for the rape of a Boston College student who was his Uber passenger. Despite an ICE detainer and discussion of his deportability in court, the judge granted bail of $2,500 and allowed the alien to be released and abscond without notice to ICE. He is still at large” (Vaughan, 2018). Sanctuary cities would be more safer and less harmful, if in fact they only let illegal immigrants get away with a minor offense, for example speeding. To the contrary of that idea, the truth is that there are not many cases like that for most illegal aliens that ICE wants to detain. They are arrested and then let go for offenses. For example: sexual assault, child abuse, using narcotics, dealing narcotics, and murder. They are arrested and then let free to prey again on the community of these sanctuary jurisdictions. These sanctuary cities have become an area for gang activities, terrorists, murders, and rapists to call home. They flee from one sanctuary city to the next to continue their crimes, and the people who defend this policy stand idly by and watch the havoc they cause, and turn a blind eye. This is because these people would rather let innocent people and children die, then to let themselves realize that their statistics are not accurate and that they are wrong. That they have silently been destroying these communities in the pretense that they are helping other countries victims, when they have only been protecting the criminals of another country. For example, as stated in the article Massachusetts Sanctuary Policies Freed Hundreds of Criminal Aliens in 10-Week Period states, “In December 2017 a citizen of Guatemala was arrested in Lynn, Mass., for armed assault to murder and other charges, but was released by the Essex County sheriff despite an ICE detainer and arrest warrant” (Vaughan, 2018). To let this type of behavior to continue is to knowingly let illegal aliens, murder and inflict pain on the innocent right before America’s justice system’s eyes. This is not what the United States stands for; the United States puts its citizens before all other nations victim, the United States brings justice to those who have been wronged, and the United States does not protect those who have taken another life.
In addition, the United States does not tolerate being taken advantage of. This is exactly what this policy does, it takes advantage of America’s communities, by stealing jobs from the citizens who were born here and raised here. While the supporting side of sanctuary cities says that this policy helps boost the economy. This is done by bringing in more workers and the consumption of more local products in the area. What it doesn’t think to mention is the flip side of this purported boosted economy. The other side of this is not so glorious. The truth is that the masses of illegal immigrants that sanctuary cities attracts work for the lowest of wages, and the result of this is that American citizens are losing their jobs because they cannot compete against such low wages that are offered by these illegal immigrants. So yes, it looks like the economy is growing, but not for legal American citizens. Contrary, they are being pushed out of their own community making room for more illegal aliens to come.
The supporters of this policy also do not care to mention or realize themselves, the overwhelming taxes that are caused by illegal immigrants. These taxes are not only derived from the sanctuary jurisdiction, but from every community in America. As stated in the article Fair Federation for American Immigration Reform states that, 'Illegal immigration is a huge burden to state and local governments, costing taxpayers an estimated $113 billion in 2013.' (Sanctuary Policy is Bad Public Policy, 2017). As many would like to think that their taxes are rebuilding America to make it a better place, they are also being used to support a policy that does more harm than good, and the general public has no idea that the policy even exists. Taxes are based on the public knowing that their money is contributing to their communities. In this scenario, the public is oblivious to this donation of their money. The argument can be made that many individuals don’t agree what taxes are used for even if it’s used for fixing roads. However, this is not to better America if it is giving criminals of another country sanctuary, and avoiding the consequences of their crimes in their country as well as the crimes they commit in America. The taxes that are used to support this policy are paving the road for more officials in power of their local district, to go ahead and disregard the law, and make loopholes to bypass it. Instead, these taxes for this policy could be used to improve American lives, but because of the ignorance of the real statistics, no one is in great opposition against the policy.
Equally important as the other problems with the sanctuary policy, is what this policy represents. It sets a preset for not only the citizens of America, but for future/current immigrants trying to become a citizen of America. As stated in the article Sanctuary and sanctimony: Defying the law is defying the law—even if it’s immigration law, “It was Southern states in 1861, like sanctuary cities now, that believed their sovereign authority was whatever they wanted it to be.” (Kane, 2017). If the U.S. starts to let a few laws slide to permit local officials to see what is just and right in their own eyes, America is creating a slippery slide downhill for upholding and respecting the law. When the law is watered down to let a few ‘innocents’ abide within the borders, it also gives dangerous criminals the opportunity to take advantage of the weak policies, for their gain. This is exactly what this policy does, it permits illegal immigrants to stay in America, without any consequences. This is an example to other immigrants of what the United States will tolerate when foreigners that break the law, which by many examples over the years have shown is that the United States has tolerated a lot of violence from these illegal immigrants. On the other hand, in other countries when a United States citizen breaks their laws, only death or a life sentence might await them, the word tolerance isn’t in their vocabulary when their laws are broken by a foreigner. America is not like any other country. The United States does not resort to the means that many other nations do when certain situations arise. However, the United States of America is comprised of free and liberated people, that are intelligent enough to know when a policy makes them vulnerable to the people who wish nothing more than to destroy America. Consequently, by breaking the law it not only hurts the future of America. It sets an example to all future immigrants that America does not uphold their own laws, and continues to treat law abiding immigrants the same as the illegal immigrants. That even though they went through the long process of becoming a citizen, there are those who can get away with skipping it entirely and doing as they please. This is setting the example that there is no benefit or consequence from obeying and breaking the law.
In conclusion, there are two type of laws that exist: One that hurts Americans and the other that improves American’s lives. The sanctuary city policy is not in the best interest for the communities of America. In addition, the policy is unfair to the immigrant who are truly trying to improve their families lives by becoming a citizen of America. By helping these illegal immigrants in this manner, it is only hurting Americans by pushing them out of their own communities. It is also hurting American’s by crippling the government’s ability to protect the communities from foreign threats. This policy is not on the road to improvement, it continues to spiral downwards, due to ignorance of those who choose to believe the fantasy of what this policy was supposed to do. America becomes more advanced every year, yet it is still holding on to a policy that dates back to ancient times, to a primitive time where a criminal can escape his crimes by fleeing to another jurisdiction. There were times in the distant past where justice was a scarce thing to happen, and where murderers were the ones who could continue happily with their lives after taking another’s life. It is horrific to read about it in history books, and the injustice is disturbing. Yet, this same line of thinking is upheld as a policy for America, and families that have had an illegal immigrant take the life of their loved one, have to live with the same injustice as those in a primitive time. The policy is a broken one, and could easily be replaced by a better policy, that would actually function better for both American citizen and immigrants trying to transition into a citizen of America. A policy that allows the U.S. government to protect the communities from foreign threats, that doesn’t contrast against the laws of America, and doesn’t steal from the United States citizens. In addition, we need a new policy that sets an example that America treats the law-abiding immigrants different from those who break the United States laws. The United States is an advanced country that works to improve its citizens lives, and could immensely improve this horrible policy, but this will only come about if America becomes aware of the many flaws of this policy. There is hope to improve this policy, but that is only possible if those who favor the policy come to recognize the many negatives outweigh the positives. However, if those who favor sanctuary cities are not willing to even recognize, let alone fix these glaring problems, then the policy as is needs to be repealed. America is here to help the victims of other countries, and the families that wish to build homes, but there are many ways to go about it than to bend the law. New laws, ordinances and resolutions can be made to replace an outdated and harmful policy that America currently has.
The Policy That Destroy Communities . (2022, May 23). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/the-policy-that-destroy-communities-essay
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