American cities are known for many things around the world \u2013 whether it be food, music, history, or culture \u2013 but now, shockingly, they are recognized for something else: how well they treat illegal aliens.<\/p>\n
New American Economy (NAE) recently published a report<\/a> on economic integration where it ranked U.S. cities on their \u201cwelcoming policies\u201d towards the immigrant population. According to the methodology of the report, an immigrant is defined as \u201canyone born outside the country to non-U.S. citizen parents who is living here and counted by the census. This includes naturalized citizens, green card holders, temporary visa holders, refugees, asylees, and undocumented immigrants, among others.\u201d While the objective of integrating those who are here legally is an admirable one, local governments should not be in the business of welcoming lawbreakers.<\/p>\n The report, otherwise known as the NAE Cities Index, systematically evaluates alien integration by measuring local policies and how well they\u2019ve created jobs, boosted wages, and expanded legal protections for the alien population, including illegal aliens.<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly, the top-ranked cities include: Newark, N.J.; Baltimore, Md.; New York, N.Y.; Chula Vista, Calif.; San Francisco, Calif.; Philadelphia, Pa.; San Jose, Calif.; Chicago, Ill.; Fremont, Calif.; and Detroit, Mich.; which have all been identified<\/a> by FAIR as sanctuary jurisdictions.<\/p>\n It should be expected that illegal aliens receive morebenefits \u00a0in these jurisdictions \u2013 their local governments have advanced radical policies which take from American citizens and legal immigrants and give to non-citizens and illegal aliens. Such policies exist notwithstanding the fact that these cities have high unemployment and homeless rates, according to surveys published by the U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development<\/a> (HUD) and Labor<\/a> (DOL).<\/p>\n By lumping policies that are targeted to helping illegal immigrants in with policies that help those here legally, NAE is awarding points to locales that embrace policies that intentionally violate federal law by helping illegal, and possibly criminal illegal aliens.\u00a0 Maybe they should rethink the way they award points.