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As America has become more polarized, the movement for sanctuary jurisdictions has grown. Localities designating themselves sanctuaries generally means they refuse to assist the federal government enforcing certain policies. While beginning as an immigration issue, it has broadened to include issues like the second amendment. As the United States becomes more politically divided, we can expect to see more of this moving forwards.
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The idea of sanctuary cities began in the early 1980’s following the United States’ refusal to grant asylum to refugees from war torn countries in Central America. Before any jurisdictions passed laws, churches in the Southwest sheltered illegal immigrants from deportation. San Francisco would become the first sanctuary city in 1985 when the city passed legislation to restrict funds and information from being used to assist federal immigration enforcement.
Since then, the policies have gained popularity with hundreds of cities and counties adopting policies against supporting immigration enforcement. Many predominantly Democratic states have also become sanctuary states while many predominantly Republican states have made sanctuary cities illegal. While in office, President Trump signed executive orders to withhold federal funds from sanctuary cities but was stopped by the courts. After that, the administration filed lawsuits against the localities and states for not cooperating with the federal government.
In the second term of the Obama administration, a new type of sanctuary cropped up. Hundreds of jurisdictions around the country passed sanctuary laws for the second amendment. Similar to immigration sanctuaries, these jurisdictions refuse to enforce or support certain federal gun control policies. These policies tend to include Democratic positions we covered in our video on the American Gun Debate.
Like immigration, Second Amendment sanctuaries in blue states have been deemed illegal by state governments while some red states have become sanctuary states themselves. This is primarily in response to proposed gun legislation on the federal level during the Obama and Biden administrations but also includes many Democratic state policies. Responses from Democratic leaders are expected to be the same as Republican responses to immigration sanctuaries.
States justify with their sanctuary statuses with the tenth amendment to the constitution. In layman’s terms, the amendment restricts the power of the federal government to the powers explicitly granted to it. States are their own sovereign entities over matters not exclusively reserved for the federal government. The federal government is therefore not allowed to commandeer the state and local political branches for its own use. This means that states and localities are not obligated to support federal law enforcement should they choose not to. On the other hand, the federal government can appropriate funds to incentivize states and localities to carry out preferred policy positions. A recent example of this occurred in the 2021 stimulus law where Democrats included a billion dollars of incentives for states that provide robust support for business owners based on racial minority status.
As the federal government grows more powerful and the political parties divide, sanctuary jurisdictions are likely to become more common. States will reject the federal government on certain policies when the opposing party has control just like how localities have done the same in their states. The removal of institutions like the filibuster will exacerbate the issue since a simple majority will allow more bills to pass without compromise. Regardless of the policies, sanctuary jurisdictions are a quickly growing phenomenon that speaks to the lack of political trust between individuals from the local to federal level.
What do you think about sanctuary jurisdictions? Is it an appropriate way for states and localities to fight back against policies they oppose? Comment what you think down below and don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe. Thank you for watching and have a great day!