Category: Sanctuary City

Omaha, Nebraska City Council Supports DACA and Dreamers

10/17/2017

The Omaha City Council (Omaha, Nebraska) approved a resolution today, on October 17, 2017, urging the U.S. Congress to act swiftly to protect "Dreamers", students protected by DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program).

The vote was 5-0, with two council members not voting.

Nebraska Republican Congressman Don Bacon submitted a letter in support of the resolution, saying he is committed to protecting law-abiding DACA youth from deportation.

This is good news for Omaha area DACA protected young people whose protection is set to expire on March 6, 2018, six months after September 6, 2017 announcement by the White House of their rescission of DACA program.

Briefly in Russian:

Городской совет города Омаха штата Небраска единогласно проголосовал сегодня за то, чтобы ходатайствовать Конгресс США о восстановлении недавно отмененной программы DACA, которая предоставляла защиту от депортации, разрешение на работу, номер соцстрахования, возможность получить водительские права молодежи, которые называются "Мечтатели", Dreamers. Президент отменил эту программу 6 сентября 2017, и дата закрытия программы 6 марта 2018.

Это хорошие новости для молодежи в городе Омаха, у которых был или есть статус DACA.

#DACA #Dreamers #Nebraska #Omaha

Read here.

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California Became a First Sanctuary State: Offered Protection to Undocumented Immigrants

10/10/2017

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On October 5, 2017, California officially became a first sanctuary state in the nation.

California Governor signed into law nearly several immigration bills, which prohibits California employers from cooperating with federal immigration authorities in the absence of a judicial warrant or court order.

For example:

Prohibits employers from voluntarily consenting to an immigration enforcement agent’s entering nonpublic areas of the workplace without a warrant;
Prohibits employers from voluntarily consenting to an immigration enforcement agent’s accessing, reviewing or obtaining employment records without a subpoena or court order;
Prohibits employers from reverifying the employment eligibility of a current employee at a time or in a manner not required by federal law; and
Requires employers to provide notice to current employees of an inspection of I-9 forms and other employment records by an immigration agency within 72 hours of receiving the federal notice of inspection.

Penalties for failure to comply with the new law range from $2,000 to $10,000 per violation.

AB 450 can be found here.

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DHS Publishes List of Jurisdictions Sanctuary Cities That Rejected ICE Immigrant Detainer Requests

3/20/2017

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On Monday, March 20, 2017, The Department of Homeland Security made good on a current administration's promise to publicly shame cities and counties that don't cooperate with federal immigration authorities, and to publish a list of Sanctuary Cities and Counties. The administration also stated that sanctuary jurisdictions will be denied federal funding.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, released its first weekly list of local jails and jurisdictions that haven't honored so-called immigrant detainer requests.

Detainer requests on behalf of ICE go to cities and counties asking that local law enforcement hold an inmate who is in the country illegally and has been arrested or charged with a crime. The intent is to have such prisoners detained for up to 48 hours so that federal officials can decide whether to pick them up and deport them.

Such cities and counties, commonly described as "sanctuary jurisdictions," may not cooperate with the detainer requests for a variety of reasons. Some say that cooperating can undermine local trust in the police if immigrants are afraid that reporting a crime will result in their own deportation. Other jurisdictions cite court rulings that have cast doubt on the constitutionality of the detainers.

The list published today covers the period from January 28 to February 3, 2017. It comes during the week following President's executive order on the interior enforcement of the nation's immigration laws. The order directed DHS to compile and publicize a list "of criminal actions committed by aliens" and identify any jurisdiction that ignored any federal detainer requests.

The list covers the cases of 206 unnamed individuals who ICE says committed "notable criminal activity" and the jails from which they were released. (206 of ignored detainers represent less than 10 percent of the 3,083 detainer requests that were issued nationwide.)

The vast majority of the offenders are from Mexico and Central America. The jurisdictions listed include Los Angeles, Colorado, New York and Travis County, Texas.

ICE sanctuary jurisdictions list can be found here.

ICE Immigration Detainer to a local law enforcement is a request for a voluntary action

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New Executive Order Threatens Sanctuary Cities by Cutting Off Federal Funding

1/27/2017

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What is a Sanctuary city or a county? Sanctuary cities or counties offer safe harbor for undocumented immigrants who might otherwise be deported by federal immigration law enforcement officials, and refuse to participate in federal efforts to deport city's or county's residents without a proper warrant. Usually, police in a sanctuary city is not interested in immigration status of people arrested or detained, or refuse to honor ICE "detainer" (request "to hold" an alien for ICE without a proper warrant).
There are approximately 140 sanctuary jurisdictions -- cities and counties -- across the U.S., including at least 37 cities -- San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Boston and Los Angeles, among others.

You can view a Map of Sanctuary cities, counties and states here .

Новый указ президента от 25 января 2017, касающийся прекращения федерального финансирования городов и округов в США, которые не выдают нелегальных иммигрантов иммиграционной полиции без ордера - Sanctuary Cities and Counties. Read in Russian below.

On Wednesday, January 25, 2017, President Trump signed an executive order that would withhold federal grant money from sanctuary cities.

"Jurisdictions that willfully refuse to comply with federal immigration laws," the order says, “are not eligible to receive Federal grants, except as deemed necessary for law enforcement purposes by the attorney general or the secretary."

Many mayors, including Chicago, Bay Area's largest cities, Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose, and the City of Berkeley said they’d defy the order.

However, this Executive Order scared many city officials who are afraid to lose federal funding for their programs. A day after president signed the order, Miami-Dade County Mayor ordered officials to abandon a sanctuary city status, and ordered county jails to begin complying with federal immigration detention demands, becoming the first mayor to abandon the sanctuary status over the fear that his city would lose millions in federal funds.

The Executive Order does not specify how much or what kind of funding would be or could be blocked, although White House press secretary said that the homeland security secretary would “look at funding streams that are going to those cities and look at how we can defund those streams.”

Just a bit of statistics. In 2016, a Justice Department inspector general’s report investigated how much in Justice Department federal grants some sanctuary jurisdictions receive (as of Mar. 2016). Over 60 percent of the funding goes to 10 jurisdictions identified by the report:

Connecticut: $69,305,444
California $132,409,635
Orleans Parish, Louisiana: $4,737,964
New York, New York: $60,091,942
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: $16,505,312
Cook County, Illinois: $6,018,544
Chicago, Illinois: $28,523,222
Miami-Dade County, Florida: $10,778,815
Milwaukee, Wisconsin: $7,539,572
Clark County, Nevada: $6,257,951

As reported by The Hill, new Executive Order on sanctuary cities is unlikely to threaten their federal funding.

Sec. 9 of the Order clarifies that “sanctuary jurisdictions” are those that “willfully refuse to comply with 8 U.S.C. 1373.” The administration intends to withhold Federal grants from those jurisdictions, “except as deemed necessary for law enforcement purposes,” and from any that have a policy that “prevents or hinders the enforcement of Federal law."

In fact, the EO is extremely narrow in scope, and the many reports of cities like Boston and Los Angeles being under threat of losing millions of dollars are simply wrong.

8 U.S.C. 1373 bans state and local policies that prohibit the sharing of information with the federal government about the immigration status of an individual.

However, while there is no uniform set of actions being implemented by sanctuary cities, few, if any, have policies in place that actually conflict with this particular federal law. Instead, they generally do one of two things, or both:
1) Ban law enforcement from asking a person about their immigration status.
2) Prohibit keeping a person in jail beyond the time they’re required to be there upon receipt of a federal immigration detainer request.
Number one basically creates an end-run. This won’t trigger a withdrawal of federal funds under 8 U.S.C. 1373 because agencies can’t share information they don’t have.
Number two has already proven to be particularly troublesome for the federal government, and will likely continue to be so.

Sec. 7 of his order calls for the hiring of 10,000 additional ICE immigration officers.
It is important to keep in mind that under the anti-commandeering doctrine, the Supreme Court has long-held that the federal government cannot force state or local governments to implement or enforce federal laws or regulatory programs.

For example, in the 1842 case, Prigg v. Pennsylvania, the Court held that while the federal Fugitive Slave Act could not be physically impeded by states, they simply weren’t required to help the federal government capture runaway slaves and return them to bondage in the South.

And in the 2012 case, N.F.I.B v. Sebelius, the Court held that states can’t be forced to expand their Medicaid programs, even under the threat of losing federal funding, as the Affordable Care Act attempted to do.

Sec. 8 of new EO explains how the new administration intends to do so: the federal government intends to “empower State and local law enforcement agencies … to perform the functions of an immigration officer.” To achieve that goal the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is directed to work with governors and local officials to “enter into agreements” to perform federal immigration enforcement duties. The order also includes a big caveat, the agreements will be made “with the consent of State or local officials, as appropriate.”

In short, while Trump is certainly ramping up the pressure to fulfill campaign promises to take on “sanctuary cities,” should cities and states hold fast in their policies, they’ll likely come out on top in court, and on the ground.

Briefly in Russian:

Новый указ президента от 25 января 2017, касающийся прекращения федерального финансирования городов и округов в США, которые не выдают нелегальных иммигрантов иммиграционной полиции без ордера - Sanctuary Cities and Counties.

25 января 2017 новый президент подписал указ о прекращении федерального финансирования некоторых программ в тех городах и округах США, которые отказываются выдавать нелегальных иммигрантов полиции.

Что такое город или округ, кторый не выдает нелагальных иммигрантов федеральной иммиграционной полиции США? Как именно они это делают?

В США около 140 городов и округов, которые считаются sanctuary cities. Карта таких городов может быть найдена тут. Например, Чикаго, Сан Франциско, Сиэттл, Бостон, Лос Анджелес.

По некоторым данным, даже округ Дуглас, в котором находится город Омаха, штат Небраска, а также Сарпи округ и Ланкастер округ все они в настоящий момент являются такими округами.

Но Мэр города Омаха и прокурор округа Ланкастер сразу же после выхода нового указа выступили с заявлением, что город Омаха не является sanctuary city, и поэтому новый указ президента на Омаху не распространяется, и в результате город не должен потерять никаких федеральных грантов.

Как города о округа поддерживают такой статус и зачем это нужно?

Полиция в таких городах считает, что их основная работа - это борьба с преступностью и обеспечение порядка. И в их обязанности не входит выяснение иммиграционного статуса (или отсутствие статуса/визы) у нарушителей закона (например, при обычной остановке водителя за нарушение правил). То есть полиция в таких городах просто этих вопросов не задает задержанным лицам.

Или же второй вариант, полиция и тюрьмы в таких городах и округах отказываются держать в заключении иностранца (за счет города) после того, как его срок задержания под стражей истек, и если иммиграционная полиция вместе с дитейнером (запросом "подержать этого гражданина под стражей подольше для ICE") не получила официальный ордер на арест и задержание.

Это конституционная норма, что отдельные штаты не могут устанавливать свои иммиграционные законы (это прерогатива федерального правительства), и как следствие, во многих случаях штаты и города не обязаны помогать федеральному правительству с депортацией иммигрантов (так как это дело федеральных органов власти и полиции).

Суть нового указа президента заключается в том, что хотя федеральное правительство США не имеет право заставить отдельные штаты помогать им в области иммиграции и депортации, НО они пытаются принудить города и штаты к сотрудничеству, путем угрозы удержания федерального финансирования.

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Omaha, Nebraska City Council Supports DACA and Dreamers

California Became a First Sanctuary State: Offered Protection to Undocumented Immigrants

DHS Publishes List of Jurisdictions Sanctuary Cities That Rejected ICE Immigrant Detainer Requests

New Executive Order Threatens Sanctuary Cities by Cutting Off Federal Funding

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