Disadvantages Of Sanctuary Cities

Gurpuneet Bassi
November 1st, 2017
Professor Ann Modzelewski
English&101

Good Sanctuary Cities?
Sanctuary city or cities are a concept traced way back in 1979 in order to prevent the police from probing a person’s identity. The cities seek to protect illegal immigration; This system is common mostly in the United States of America and Canada. Some examples of these cities include Los Angeles, Washington DC, New Jersey, Chicago, San Francisco and many others. Sanctuary cities tend to harbor and shelter immigrants in the country. “Sanctuary cities” is a term commonly used to refer to cities that do not have a problem with people who have come here illegally from other countries. Sanctuary cities act as a safe refuge site for illegal immigrants

or people from other countries. Sanctuary cities not only provide a conducive environment for the illegal immigrants but they also protect the unauthorized people who come into the US without the proper documentation. Sanctuary cities have been a subject of contention since time immemorial, and they have received a lot of criticism and applause at the same time.

Some of the benefits of sanctuary cities are contributions to the economy of the country by the “illegal aliens” through investment in businesses and pay tax to the government. The aliens also help with labor and job creation opportunities. These cities have brought about impacts across states and country as a whole. The impacts could either be positive or negative which could be the advantages or disadvantages too. The concept of sanctuary cities has been adopted by many cities across the country to avert the police or law enforcers from asking the residents or dwellers to prove their legal immigration status. In other words, the sanctuary cities tend to help with police brutality Some of the benefits of sanctuary cities are contributions to the economy of the country by the “illegal aliens” through investment in businesses and pay tax to the government, although some immigrants do not pay their taxes. The aliens also help with labor and job creation opportunities. Sanctuary cities have been used by many cities across the country to help the illegal immigrants that come to their city. They

also help with the police. In other words, the sanctuary cities tend to help the police brutality. The concept also enables the facilitation of community policing which allows the aliens and all citizens to work closely with the police in crimes scenes and such. Sanctuary cities however have a lot of its criticism that forms the basis of its demerits. Some of the disadvantages of these safe-haven states are that the aliens pose a threat to the security of the nation security because they are protected and seek refuge under these sanctuary laws. There is also the menace of terrorism and rise in crime because of the immigrants are not documented by the state. Sanctuary cities make it cumbersome to keep records of people including aliens. The aliens also install the pressure on resources in terms of social amenities. The resources become too little and not enough for all the citizens. Conclusively, sanctuary cities are essential and of tremendous importance to the society as they help protect and support peaceful coexistence between the sanctuary city dwellers.
Sanctuary cities help cities more than they harm them.

Sanctuary cities are mostly in the United States of America, but also countries like Canada, who have embraced the system. The system is present in some Canadian cities like Hamilton, Toronto, and Ontario. They provide more labor work and job opportunities. They help make cities safer by providing the illegal citizens a safe envoirment to tell the scene to, without the fear of deportation. Lastly, but certainly not least, they help the economy of the United States. Sanctuary cities have a surplus of unemployed illegal immigrants, and as we all know, there is always a need for labor workers in big cities. In fact, many sanctuary cities are huge cities that need these workers, these cities include: Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, and many others. Many economies of various states are also affected by the immigrants. In a study done in 2009 by the Migration Policy Institute, “[They estimated] that unauthorized immigrants make up 23 percent of Texas' labor force in the construction industry, 17 percent in the service sector and 10 percent in the manufacturing sector.” This information supports my claim that these “illegal aliens” help the large cities/states, because without the immigrants nearly a quarter of Texas’ labor work would not be supported, and this would definitely affect their economy (Dallas News, 2017). The surplus of jobs created that are then available to labor workers in sanctuary cities also have helped the

case for illegal workers. To support this, “According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in Los Angeles, where about 33 percent of the population wasn't born in the U.S., manufacturing employment is No. 1 among metropolitan areas with more than 500,000 jobs. "The face of the world is on our streets with over 230 languages spoken and 120 countries of origin," Mayor Eric M. Garcetti said in an interview in his office a week before he was re-elected to a second term on March 7. "It's who we are instinctively, no matter what somebody tries to do from Washington, D.C. or anywhere else." (Bloomberg, 2017) This supports the idea that sanctuary cities have greater economic opportunity, as they have more workers. Many of the sanctuary cities are very big cities that have enormous economic value to the United States, this value is vital to the US and its economy. With there being larger cities, there are larger amounts of people needed to maintain these cities. If sanctuary cities have more workers, then they are carving out more job opportunities in their city, this is clearly helping the US and its economy. What Eric M. Garcetti, the mayor of Los Angeles, said about the world says that he fully supports sanctuary cities. He also talks about how the people on the streets are the people who will change the world for the better, so what if they’re illegal or not.
Sanctuary cities are also safer for a variety of reasons, there are less crimes committed by the immigrants that are mad at the police and government, the cities are not conflicted with deporting citizens, and they also do not have to worry about citizens not talking as they are afraid of their immigration status. An example of this is, in a recent study done by Tom K. Wong, a political scientist at the University of California-San Diego there were some reassuring numbers that helped the sanctuary city cause, “on average, counties that did not comply with ICE requests experienced 35.5 fewer crimes per 10,000 people than those that did.” This study shows that having more illegal immigrants leads to less crime rates. The reason this happens is because there are more people speaking up for the acts of violating laws, and that is causing the people who do these crimes to second think these actions. Later, Wong said, [that] “the net benefits to sanctuary cities would offset the impact of Trump's shame offensive on them. "The ultimate effect is going to be minimal," he said (NPR, 2017) This leads us to think that all the information Donald Trump, the US’s president, is saying is wrong. This also leads to the thinking that this “fake news” is being used to manipulate us, and that sanctuary cities are good for the nation.
Lastly, I think that sanctuary cities should be appreciated more, because they help the US with their security, thus helping with their reputation. With this, more immigrants think that the US is one of the greatest countries. They think that the US will provide them with a safe environment. Sanctuary cities are safer because they encourage good relationships between undocumented immigrants and law enforcement. In fact, in a study done by Nik Theodore, in his article, "Insecure Communities: Latino Perceptions of Police Involvement in Immigration Enforcement,” 70% of undocumented immigrants and 44% of Latinos surveyed are less likely to report if they were the victim of crime and 45% of Latinos are less likely report crimes or voluntarily offer information about a crime for fear police officers would about their immigration status (Policy Link, 2012). This information leads to the conclusion that many law enforcement groups make immigrants (documented or not) feel insecure about themselves. However, in another study
In conclusion, sanctuary cities are good for the community and for the US. They help the United States with a variety of stuff, this includes the United States of America’s economy, they also help us with our reputation towards the rest of the world, this includes helping out the not as fortunate ones with places to live, and lastly, they help us with keeping our fabulous, great country of America safe for everyone. They should be appreciated more. The America of today has drastically changed from the America we had 20 years ago. Today's America is more dangerous and is more of a hostile place. It seems like we are consistently hearing of new terror attacks. Why do they occur? No one knows. These attacks don't just come from a certain type of people, or have the same cause but they damage this country in one way or another. We can stop immigrants from entering our fabulous country, but we can't stop the people who have bad intentions. This is the reason immigration has transformed into such a controversial topic. This is also why sanctuary cities are also involved in these debates. Will we move forward as a country? Will there be new border laws? Will we have more law enforcement on borders and immigrants? Will we have new “Trump Wall”? We can only predict, but we don’t know for sure.