Opinion: ‘Sanctuary’ cities insist on what’s already law: The feds should enforce their own immigration rules

To the editor: David Rivkin and Elizabeth Price mischaracterize what sanctuary cities and campuses are doing. (“Can Trump cut off funds for sanctuary cities? The Constitution says yes,” Opinion, Dec. 8)

To date, governments and campuses that have enacted policies broadly characterized as “sanctuary” policies have simply required their employees to protect the privacy interests of their students and residents as required by law. They have indicated that they will not compile data that they would not otherwise compile nor share data in violation of the law.

States and localities are not required to engage in the unfunded investigation and policing of potential civil federal immigration violations. To punish their lawful behavior with the withholding of federal funds would be unconstitutional.

The best way to ensure federal uniformity is to limit immigration enforcement to federal actors. Farming out those responsibilities to state and local workers is the quickest path to immigration “Balkanization,” and one that is easily avoided by allowing states and localities to focus on their core missions.

Jennifer M. Chacón, Irvine

The writer is a professor at UC Irvine School of Law, where she teaches about immigration law.

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To the editor: Making California a sanctuary state by effectively keeping immigration agents out of the state would be very dangerous.

I can understand why progressives want to make sure the average undocumented Californian is free from harassment from the federal government, but we should recognize that those with criminal records or with multiple felonies should be not offered any protection in the U.S.

For an example of the danger of sanctuary laws, look at what happened when an undocumented immigrant in San Francisco with multiple deportations and felony convictions was released from jail and later killed 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle.

Matthew Munson, Ontario

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