How Mayors Across the U.S. Are Defying Donald Trump on Immigration

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How Mayors Across the U.S. Are Defying Donald Trump on Immigration

Josh Sanburn @joshsanburn

Nov. 21, 2016


The day after Donald Trump was elected president, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray visited a local school. Many of the students, he says, were Latino, undocumented and upset about the new president-elect, who vowed during the campaign to deport millions of people just like them.

In the face of Trump’s threat and his electoral victory, Murray has vowed to preserve Seattle as a “sanctuary city,” one of dozens across the country where local officials refuse to comply with federal immigration orders that could lead to deportation.

“If we were forced to cooperate, those young people who spent their whole lives here would be ripped out of this city and sent to a place they don’t know,” Murray says. “And I think that is immoral.”

The stark differences over immigration policy have set up a clash between the incoming Republican administration and predominantly Democratic mayors around the country. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel have both pledged to keep their cities’ sanctuary status, and mayors in roughly two dozen other cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Baltimore, Newark, N.J., and Providence, R.I., have reaffirmed their policies not to comply with federal immigration agents.

Trump, meanwhile, has taken aim at these cities; in his first 100 days, the president-elect has pledged to slash federal money for cities that refuse to work with immigration agents who ask local officials to detain potentially undocumented immigrants. On Sunday, Reince Priebus, Trump’s incoming chief of staff, told CNN that cutting funding for those cities is something the administration will be “looking into.” But the threatened budget cuts have not dissuaded mayors determined to protect undocumented immigrants.

“It’s my personal belief that it’s the morally right thing to do,” says Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney. “But in addition to that, it’s the economically smart thing to do. Immigrants helped reverse decades of population decline in our city and they’re responsible for almost all our small business growth.”

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http://time.com/4578847/sanctuary-city-mayors-donald-trump-immigration/?xid=msn,,Keith%20Bedford/The%20Boston%20Globe%e2%80%94Getty%20ImagesProtesters%20take%20part%20in%20a%20rally%20to%20show%20support%20for%20and%20to%20protect%20undocumented%20students%20at%20Harvard%20University%20on%20the%20school%27s%20grounds%20in%20Cambridge,%20Mass.,%20on%20Nov.%2014,%202016.,Mark%20Wilson%e2%80%94Getty%20ImagesRepublican%20president-elect%20Donald%20Trump%20gives%20a%20thumbs%20up%20to%20the%20crowd%20during%20his%20acceptance%20speech%20at%20his%20election%20night%20event%20at%20the%20New%20York%20Hilton%20Midtown%20in%20the%20early%20morning%20hours%20of%20November%209,%202016%20in%20New%20York%20City.

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