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Chance’s Perspective:
8 U.S.C code 1373 states that no government entity, such as a local government, can prohibit another government entity, such as the local police force, from receiving information regarding the citizenship of an individual. Yet that is literally what is happening in sanctuary cities. In a reasonable response to these unconstitutional actions, President Trump sent an executive order stating that federal funds may be withheld from any jurisdiction refusing to comply with the law, yet protesters are ironically deeming this to be “unconstitutional”.
I completely acknowledge illegal immigrant’s contribution to our society. I don’t necessarily accept them either, as I would much rather have them immigrate legally, but I understand that a majority of them abide by the law. However it’s important to not look at illegals as a collective, as the issue isn’t with law abiding illegals, but rather the illegal immigrants who disrespect our nation’s laws. This type of illegal citizen is responsible for making the collective illegal immigrant population being three times as likely to be convicted of murder in comparison to members of the legal population. I would understand the purpose of Sanctuary cities if they achieved their goal of protecting the lives of those who live there, but they’re letting criminal illegal immigrants back out on the streets after they’ve participated in terrible crimes such as murder, rape, and gang violence, enabling them to offend again. Why I don’t support sanctuary cities is because we are protecting the criminal illegal immigrant minority to the detriment of the law abiding majority.
The issue of sanctuary cities boils down to one thing; ICE detainments aren’t happening nearly at the rate they should be, as sanctuary cities undermine law enforcement. There is a growing refusal to cooperate with federal agents in deporting illegal immigrants who break the law in these areas. The Center for Immigration Studies found that in a nine-month timeframe in 2014, sanctuary cities shielded over 9,000 illegals from deportation, 62 percent of which “had significant prior criminal ties”, and this could easily be improved upon if sanctuary cities cooperated with detainment requests. With more and more sanctuary cities restricting police officers from asking residents their citizenship status, they’re accomplishing their goal of keeping criminal illegal immigrants on the streets while the rest of the civilians in these cities, and the rest of the United States, suffers the consequences.
How we end sanctuary cities and the chaos occurring within them, is by making legal immigration more appealing. The current law abiding illegal immigrants will become legal and continue to abide by the law. The current criminal immigrants would think twice about even coming here, as the current penalty for disobeying the law in sanctuary cities, not even as much as a slap on the wrist, would become incarceration in the best prison system in the world, America’s.
Sachin’s Perspective:
Sanctuary cities are the Obamacare of the immigration world. It’s a necessary stepping stone to the broader goal of creating a pathway to citizenship for hardworking, law-abiding undocumented immigrants just as Obamacare is the stepping stone to Medicare for all.
Currently, there are roughly 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States. It’s simply unrealistic to deport 11 million immigrants from this nation, and it would be detrimental to the U.S. economy. According to a recently published article in CNN, “Each deportation conducted by ICE cost taxpayers an average of $10,854 in fiscal 2016” (Blanco). If Trump sticks to his promise of deporting 11 million illegal immigrants, taxpayers would be forced to pay approximately $119 billion dollars to finance his operation. Deportations will not only destroy our economy, but will break apart families and destroy the futures of millions of children. Furthermore, Esther Yu-Hsi Lee, an immigration reporter from ThinkProgress, reveals that if “undocumented immigrants are granted legal status and citizenship after five years, the GDP would grow by $1.1 trillion, there would be an additional 159,000 jobs per year, and add $144 billion in tax revenue.” Creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants would generate immense growth in the U.S. economy.
Chance also claimed that sanctuary cities are chaotic and often violent. A recent study by Tom K. Wong, a political scientist at University of California-San Diego, revealed that “counties that did not comply with ICE [detainer] requests experienced 35.5 fewer crimes per 10,000 people than those that did [and] counties that did not comply with detainer requests had higher household incomes, lower rates of unemployment, lower rates of poverty, and were less likely to have children under 18 in households receiving public benefits” (Wong in Demby). It’s easy to see why sanctuary counties/cities are safer than surrounding counties. Sanctuary cities such as San Francisco have strong economies propped up by undocumented immigrant labor. A study by the Immigration Policy Center explains that while undocumented immigration has reached historic highs, “crime rates have declined, notably in cities with large numbers of undocumented immigrants, including border cities like El Paso and San Diego.
Incarceration rate for native-born men in the 18-39 age group was five times higher than for foreign-born men in the same age group.” It’s easy to buy into the fear-mongering rhetoric that illegal immigrants are vicious criminals out to kill Americans. These are isolated cases, and those criminals should definitely be detained, not deported. Criminals should be punished, not human beings trying to create a better future for their kids. Punishing all illegal immigrants for the crimes of a few is irrational.
Common Ground:
We both acknowledge that law abiding illegal immigrants within sanctuary cities have positive benefits on society that would prove detrimental if these illegals were deported. We both think that legal immigration should be more accessible so that good people can be here without fear of deportation. While we have different perspectives on the consequences of illegal immigration, it’s important that we find these points of agreement if we ever want to reach common ground.
Conflict and Common Ground 