The Promise of Sanctuary Cities and the Need for Criminal Justice Reforms in an Era of Mass Deportation

Fair Punishment Project, Immigrant Defense Project, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, April 2017 - "While many officials champion their status as “sanctuary cities” and have taken meaningful steps to protect immigrant communities, sweeping criminal laws in these places leave many immigrants trapped within an arm’s reach of deportation.

President Trump intends to use local criminal justice systems to deport as many noncitizens as resources will allow. Local officials — mayors, city council members, county commissioners, prosecutors, and the police — now have a critical opportunity to thwart his plans and acknowledge the inextricable link between the deportation pipeline and the criminal justice system, and to finally reform their criminal justice systems. It is already smart policy to stop sending people to jail en masse; localities’ punitive policies disproportionately send people of color, including immigrants, to languish in jail or prison. But to make good on their laudable sanctuary goals, local officials must heed the advice of criminal justice reformers, immigration advocates, and their communities, and institute sweeping change.

This report is a collaboration between the Fair Punishment Project and the Immigrant Defense Project, with the support of the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. Together, we hope that our breadth of experience can help advance the conversation that has already started about the intersection between criminal justice and President Trump’s immigration policies. In this report, we first explain the various ways that non-citizens are trapped in the deportation web, starting with arrest. We then offer concrete reform proposals that officials at every level of city and county government can implement."