Police Union Just Slammed Trump’s Sanctuary City Policy, Endangers Public Safety
Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, says that leaders of the union are deeply troubled by President Donald Trump’s threats to cut federal block grants from so-called ‘sanctuary cities.’ Sanctuary cities do not use local municipal funds to enforce federal immigration rules, meaning that undocumented immigrants enjoy a degree of security.
Pasco and fellow leaders fear that police funding will be impacted and police departments will not be able to adequately do their jobs to ensure Americans’ safety.
Cutting police funding in an attempt to manipulate sanctuary cities into cracking down on immigration makes everyone less safe. Is Trump seriously willing to sacrifice the safety and livelihoods of Americans to strong arm city governments? What happened to “Make America safe again”?
Furthermore, if he believes that sanctuary cities are already more dangerous than the rest of America, shouldn’t they be getting extra policing?
Trump built his campaign on xenophobia, targeting Muslims and Latinos. In particular, he launched his campaign by asserting the urban legend that undocumented immigrants bring crime to America. His solution? The inane wall on the Mexican border that he plans to build.
The vast majority of Americans believe Trump’s line that undocumented immigrants bring more crime. In reality, undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit crimes that native born Americans, according to the Police Foundation. Since the 1990s undocumented immigration has soared and crime rates have plummeted. Even uneducated undocumented immigrants have lower crime and incarceration rates than Americans.
Trump’s executive order to slash funding from sanctuary cities does exclude funding “deemed necessary for law enforcement purposes.” However, the Fraternal Order of Police is not convinced that the exception will be enough to cover all current policing activities.
We hope that Trump changes his mind before Americans suffer the consequences of his ill-thought out policies. But knowing Trump, that is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
