{"id":17492,"date":"2018-08-16T13:57:48","date_gmt":"2018-08-16T17:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=17492"},"modified":"2018-12-28T10:09:02","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T15:09:02","slug":"the-nations-capital-a-sanctuary-city-on-steroids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2018\/08\/16\/the-nations-capital-a-sanctuary-city-on-steroids\/","title":{"rendered":"The Nation’s Capital: A Sanctuary City on Steroids"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why on earth is Washington, D.C., a sanctuary city?\u00a0 None of the legal arguments the open-borders crowd make for other sanctuary jurisdictions even remotely apply to the nation\u2019s capital.\u00a0 And yet the District of Columbia is still hell-bent on going even further<\/a>.\u00a0 So it\u2019s time for the federal government to reel the federal city back in.<\/p>\n

D.C. is not a state, no matter how much its local political establishment may act like it is.\u00a0 It is a creation of federal law, and a place where the federal government has much more sweeping authority than out in the rest of the country.\u00a0 Under Article I, Section 8, clause 17 of the U.S. Constitution, Congress has the power to \u201c[t]o exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District \u2026 as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of Government of the United States[.]\u201d\u00a0 Congress used this power to pass the Residence Act of 1790 and the Organic Act of 1801, creating the District of Columbia out of territory granted by Maryland and Virginia.\u00a0 The Virginia portion, now Arlington County and the City of Alexandria, was retroceded (returned to Virginia) by Congress in 1846.<\/p>\n

The District has had a variety of arrangements for its local government since its creation, but the current structure dates back only 45 years, to the District of Columbia Home Rule Act<\/a>, passed by Congress in 1973.\u00a0 Under the Home Rule Act, D.C. has an elected mayor and council who can pass and enforce laws for it, but with significant exceptions.\u00a0 Most notably, Congress reviews all legislation passed by the council and can block it before it goes into effect\u2014including the District\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n

Congress has exercised this power several times, on issues ranging from abortion funding to needle exchanges to medical marijuana, yet never on immigration.\u00a0 This neglect by Congress of such an important national issue appears to have emboldened successive mayors and councilmembers to make D.C. the sanctuary city it now is.<\/p>\n

The District started officially adopting sanctuary policies at least as far back as 1984, when then-Mayor Marion Barry (D) issued a memo<\/a> prohibiting D.C. officers and employees from asking anyone about their immigration status, with a narrow exception only for determining eligibility for public benefits.\u00a0 In 2011, then-Mayor Vincent Gray (D) expanded this<\/a> to also prohibit officers from stopping or detaining anyone based on suspicion of being an illegal alien, and to deny immigration authorities access to inmates in D.C. custody \u201cwithout a criminal nexus.\u201d\u00a0 And in 2012, the D.C. council passed a local law<\/a> saying immigration detainers would only be honored if: 1) there was a written agreement with the federal government to reimburse D.C. for compliance costs and 2) the arrestee had been convicted of a \u201cdangerous crime\u201d or \u201ccrime of violence\u201d within the previous ten years.<\/p>\n

Current Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) has defiantly insisted that even in the age of President Trump\u2019s commitment to enforcing our immigration laws, \u201c[t]he District is and will continue to be a sanctuary city.”\u00a0 Her own addition to D.C.\u2019s ever-growing panoply of sanctuary policies was the creation of its<\/a> \u201cImmigrant Justice Legal Services Grant Program,\u201d which since 2017 has paid out more than half a million taxpayer dollars a year, including on lawyers to fight the deportation of illegal aliens.\u00a0 It\u2019s set to increase<\/a> to $900,000 next year.<\/p>\n

And if even that\u2019s not enough, now Councilmember Brandon Todd (D) wants to \u201cdouble down on \u2026 sanctuary city policies\u201d by criminalizing landlords and employers reporting illegal aliens to immigration authorities.\u00a0 His bill<\/a> would make that \u201cextortion,\u201d punishable by up to ten years in prison.<\/p>\n

There is no excuse whatsoever for Congress to allow all this dangerous absurdity to continue under their very noses.\u00a0 Unlike other sanctuary jurisdictions that can try to hide behind the Tenth Amendment or whatever else, D.C. is a creation of Congress and can only do what Congress lets it do.\u00a0 Up until now, they have let it do far too much.