Not All Immigrants Support ‘Sanctuary Cities’

In a city of Howard County, Maryland, a bill to make it a safe haven for illegal aliens was stifled – not by conservative Republicans – but by legal immigrants … some of whom supported Hillary Clinton.  This drives the ‘sanctuary city’ liberals nuts!

One might think, legal immigrants and illegal immigrants should pretty much be together on this issue, right?  Not so!  Legal immigrants see ‘sanctuary city’ status as something that denigrates and cheapens their long road to legal status or naturalization.

It’s no secret that for those who want a green card or become U.S. citizens, the process could take years.  Yet, these people who entered illegally – who have broken federal immigration laws – get a free pass … because that’s what liberal Democrats want? Correct!

Right now, ‘sanctuary city’ legislation is being considered as a way to fight President Trump’s agenda.  Yet, in deep blue Maryland, naturalized citizens torpedoed that initiative. Who could have guessed that people who came here legally and went through the process would act so negatively?

To make the irony more explicit, even former illegal aliens, who in their lifetimes have worked their way to green card status and eventually citizenship, say that they’re opposed to ‘sanctuary city’ ordinances.  

The New York Times (NYT) reported:

“At first blush, making Howard County a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants had seemed a natural move: The county has twice as many Democrats as Republicans and a highly educated population, full of scientists and engineers.  One in five residents was born abroad.  But the bill met stout opposition from an unlikely source: some of those very same foreign-born residents.”

In passionate testimony before county legislators, and intense debates with liberal neighbors born in the United States, legal immigrants argued that offering sanctuary to people who came to the country illegally devalued their own past struggles to gain citizenship.  Some even felt it threatened their hard-won hold on the American dream.

Their objections stunned Democratic supporters of sanctuary here and helped bring about the bill’s demise in March.  A similar proposal for the state collapsed recently in the Maryland Senate, where Democrats also hold a two-to-one advantage.  Some of the same immigrants spoke out against it.

The NYT then went through various stories from legal and naturalized citizens, where both groups also emphasized the rule of law and the growing crime rates when gangs like MS-13 entered the picture.  Here is one such account:

“Many Hispanics welcomed Democrats’ efforts to make Maryland a sanctuary.  Stanley Salazar, 37, did not.  A carpenter in Silver Spring, he compares living in the country illegally to being a guest in someone’s home: Be on your best behavior.  Make your bed and do the dishes.  Any misbehavior — drinking and driving, for example — could mean you are no longer welcome.  Mr. Salazar, who is from El Salvador, knows this because he himself was illegal.  His journey back, and to American citizenship, was long, but compared with more recent immigrants’, relatively painless.  He left law school in El Salvador in 2001 and traveled to Maryland on a tourist visa, but violated its terms by painting houses for cash.  After several extensions, his visa expired.  But he spoke English, thanks to his mother’s tireless teaching.  She had a green card.  And he had a driver’s license, a bank account and a car.  By 2007, he had his own green card.  Now, he lives in a small house with his wife, their daughters and his mother, 73, who rides the subway into Washington every morning to her job serving sandwiches in a museum.  Mr. Salazar thinks sanctuary would be bad for Maryland.  He bases this on what has already happened in Montgomery County, where he has been part of a Hispanic population boom.

The Salvadoran gang MS-13 has gained strength in the area recently, the authorities say, partly because of an influx of undocumented children arriving without their parents.  The young arrivals are more susceptible to recruitment by gangs.

Well, that’s odd.  When conservative Republicans talk about border security in relation to enforcing existing federal immigration laws, fighting crime, and how it’s unfair to legal immigrants — they’re labeled racists, anti-immigrant, and xenophobic.  As a naturalized citizen, I’m [Salazar] for enforcing federal immigration laws because that’s what societies based on law and order do.  They enforce the laws.  They protect and define its borders. And if you come here illegally, you’re out. It’s refreshing to see Immigration and Customs Enforcement begin to do their jobs again.”

It seems that even some in the immigrant communities have the same concerns exhibited from those who want to see our immigration laws enforced.  Yet, since they opposed ‘sanctuary cities,’ they’ll be called racists and hypocrites because well, it’s easier for liberals to do that than persuade them to their view.  And the reason they can’t is because ‘sanctuary cities’ are very, very bad aspects of social policy.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel