Not content with just how much they have successfully kept illegal aliens from being deported, a consensus appears to have emerged recently among politicians in multiple sanctuary states: their next major sanctuary policy to adopt is trying to keep federal immigration authorities out of state and local government buildings, primarily schools, hospitals and especially courthouses.\u00a0 The details differ, but the idea is the same, and those pushing it are driving their states headlong towards a potentially dangerous confrontation with the federal government.<\/p>\n
Given its record of churning out new benefits and protections for illegal aliens, you\u2019d probably expect California to have taken the lead on this, but not quite.\u00a0 At the end of January, the state Senate passed a bill<\/a> to prohibit<\/a> federal immigration agents from entering state buildings without a judicial warrant, and restricting their arrests even with a warrant, but the bill hasn\u2019t moved in the relatively more moderate Assembly at all since then.<\/p>\n It\u2019s actually New York that\u2019s gone the furthest out in front on the issue: on April 25, Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) signed an executive order<\/a> claiming to bar ICE from making arrests at state buildings.\u00a0 But the state\u2019s courts quickly made clear that the order doesn\u2019t apply to ICE and engaged in a surprisingly encouraging amount of public pushback based on the principle that the buildings are open to everyone: as Office of Court Administration spokesman Lucian Chalfen explained<\/a>, \u201c[a]s long as outside law enforcement checks in and has the appropriate paperwork, we maintain that they have the legal authority to observe or make an arrest.\u201d<\/p>\n In response, a bill was introduced in the Assembly on May 30\u2014Assembly Bill (AB) 11013<\/a>, the \u201cProtect Our Courts Act,\u201d\u2014that specifically covers courthouses, and appears to actually even make civil arrests without a judicial warrant (such as by ICE) in courthouses a crime..\u00a0 If passed by the Assembly, the bill\u2019s chances in the narrowly Republican-controlled Senate are unclear, but given his past actions and statements, if it ever reached Cuomo\u2019s desk he\u2019d be nearly certain to sign it.<\/p>\n But Illinois isn\u2019t far behind New York.\u00a0 Its bill\u2014Senate Bill (SB) 35<\/a>, the \u201cImmigration Safe Zones Act\u201d\u2014might not be quite as extreme as New York\u2019s, since it doesn\u2019t create criminal penalties, but it does go beyond what Cuomo\u2019s executive order does since it covers the courts.\u00a0 Also unlike the New York bill, it\u2019s already passed both chambers of the state legislature.\u00a0 You have to wonder if Republican Governor Bruce Rauner might rouse himself to veto it, since he signed the state\u2019s current sanctuary law, the so-called \u201cIllinois Trust Act\u201d (SB 31) (2017)<\/a>, last year.\u00a0 It\u2019s unlikely there would be the votes in the legislature to override a veto: Democrats control the House of Representatives only 67-51<\/a>, and the Senate 37-22<\/a>, neither of which is close to the required 2\/3 supermajority<\/a>, unless significant numbers of Republicans joined them.<\/p>\n Finally, one of the most extreme positions on this of all might have reared its head in, of all places, Rhode Island: for two years in a row now, the \u201cRhode Island Values Act<\/a>\u201d has sought to bar ICE and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) from schools, hospitals, places of worship and courthouses without a judicial warrant, even when those buildings are otherwise open to the public and even when they\u2019re the property not of state or local government but of private parties.\u00a0 The bill didn\u2019t even get a floor vote this session, but given the increased national impetus for such policies, it\u2019ll probably be back next year.<\/p>\n The biggest thing in common with all this legislation?\u00a0 Actually complying with it, trying to physically enforce it on the ground in specific cases, is very likely a federal crime<\/a>.\u00a0 It recklessly escalates things toward a direct confrontation with the federal government.<\/p>\n The politicians backing these dangerous policies are taking their constituents along for a drive straight off a cliff.\u00a0 Hopefully it can all be stopped and turned around before it really is too late.