By Jill McLaughlin The Trump administration sued the city of Los Angeles on June 30, alleging that the city’s sanctuary policies prohibited immigration officers from doing their jobs. In the lawsuit, Attorney General Pam Bondi invoked the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, which establishes that federal laws and treaties are the supreme law of the […]
Tag: Sanctuary City
Sanctuary city refers to municipal jurisdictions, typically in North America and Western Europe, that limit their cooperation with the national government’s effort to enforce immigration law. Leaders of sanctuary cities say they want to reduce fear of deportation and possible family break-up among people who are in the country illegally, so that such people will be more willing to report crimes, use health and social services, and enroll their children in school. In the United States, municipal policies include prohibiting police or city employees from questioning people about their immigration status and refusing requests by national immigration authorities to detain people beyond their release date, if they were jailed for breaking local law. Such policies can be set expressly in law or observed in practice, but the designation “sanctuary city” does not have a precise legal definition.
